


To my dearest, Tom

by Prince_of_Pharaohs



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abraxas Malfoy lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Attempt at Humor, BAMF Harry Potter, Character Death, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, F/M, Fluff, I gave up on being serious, M/M, Morally Grey Harry Potter, Nice Draco Malfoy, Nice Malfoys, Obsessive Behavior, Obsessive Tom Riddle, POV Harry Potter, POV Tom Riddle, POV Voldemort, Possessive Tom Riddle, Reincarnation, Slightly Insane Tom, Slightly Obssessive Tom, Smart Harry Potter, Soulmates, and he recognises Harry, kind of, what the fuck is happening, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2019-12-27 01:09:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18293786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prince_of_Pharaohs/pseuds/Prince_of_Pharaohs
Summary: Everyone has a reason for their actions. Either something drastic as retribution, or something petty as jealousy. But in Voldemort’s case. Love was the reason.The Dark Lord loved someone once.However, as everything in his life. He was taken away from him. Specifically, his worst fear, death, ripped him away from his hands. Tom swore to get him back, he would never rest until he has him back in his arms. No matter how insane it was. Tom was prepared to doanything. Even if it meant defying death itself.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> this idea has been in my mind for a while. Apologies for the lines that absolutely make no sense, and grammar mistakes. I am still human(and I’m not a professional) after all.  
> Bad idea to start a multi chaptered fanfic when you still have a series to finish- but Pharaoh says fuck it and just posted this.  
> Why did I write this. That’s a rethorical question. Don’t answer it.  
> Expect slow updates.  
> And read the tags, I don’t think this will be a serious fanfic(despite how serious the summary seems)
> 
> Edited: 6 July 2019

Would you believe a budding Dark Lord could love? No? Neither did Tom. The only emotions he had ever felt was bitterness and (disgustingly) sadness. However, that will all change in his third year after an interesting student catches his usually undivided attention.

Hadrian Henry Potter, Fleamont Potter’s younger brother and the black sheep of the Potter family. Was sorted into the house of the cunning and the ambitious, Slytherin, much to everyone’s surprise. Potters were, after all, only sorted to the house of the brave and the courageous(and bullheaded), Gryffindor. But even so, he was still a pureblood and was never really bothered by the Slytherins because of this. Hadrian also got along well with Abraxas, one of Tom’s loyal acquaintance. And seeing that, his older brother became even more displeased. Hadrian was mostly bothered by the Gryffindors and because Slytherins stick together. Nearby snakes would usually help him against the stubborn and hard-headed lions. 

So why was his existence so noteworthy, you ask?

Simply put it. Hadrian never cowered under Tom’s gaze, and never obeyed him. It infuriated him to no end. In addition to the fact that Tom couldn’t figure him out made it even worse. Hadrian was an irritating boy and he could make a Tom lose control of his usually calm demeanor. And because of this, Tom would find himself observing(no he wasn’t stalking. He wasn’t interested enough that he would stalk) Hadrian, and every time they bump into each other, Tom would terrorize him.  
And sometimes Tom would wonder why Hadrian got sorted to Slytherin. 

One night, however, would change his ill feelings he felt for Hadrian. 

It was a cold Yule night. The halls of Hogwarts were quiet and empty(save for a few wandering students), as most students went home for Yule(or Christmas for mud— muggle-borns). But a few students stayed in Hogwarts instead, like Tom, and one of them had been a certain Hadrian Potter.

It was a surprise why Hadrian didn’t join his older brother, Fleamont, home for Yule. Because all purebloods went home to their respective homes and families(Abraxas has actually invited him to Yule in the Malfoy Manor but he had refused.). Was it because he got sorted to Slytherin and couldn’t face his parents? Or perhaps something deeper? 

Tom found himself distracted with thoughts of Hadrian, in the days following Yule. Was he feeling pity for him? No... that’s a load of crap. Tom doesn’t feel empathy nor sympathy for anyone. Especially not to someone as infuriating as Hadrian Potter.

Tom, distracted by his thoughts, doesn’t realize that he stumbled upon a disheveled Hadrian. In the astronomy tower(which was open for the holidays, since some students would find themselves bored.).

“Riddle? H-how did you find me?” A familiar voice stuttered out, his voice slightly cracking. 

Tom suddenly turned his head to the left, where the voice came from. Hadrian’s hair looked even messier than it was before, his clothes were wet with... tears? And the rims around his eyes were completely red. Tom’s heart clenched painfully and he wasn’t quite sure why. 

“If you want to bother me. I’m not in the mood.” He says after struggling to sniff for air, his voice hoarse from crying. 

“Wha.... what happened to you?” Tom blurted out suddenly without even realizing. “Why do you care?” He expected that reply, but he can’t but feel... hurt? Somewhat? 

“To blackmail me?” Hadrian hissed out in spite after Tom didn’t reply. “How long can you get, Riddle?” The glare directed at him was gentle than normal. 

Tom could easily break Hadrian right there. He was in his most vulnerable state. But Tom didn’t want to. 

“Bold of you to assume that I’d blackmail you-”

“But it’s the truth isn’t it?” Hadrian rudely interrupted. “Everyone would bend backward for you because you’re charming. If I was stupid. I think I would be one of your stupid followers.” 

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Potter.” Tom rolled his eyes. Didn’t Hadrian see that Tom was trying to help him?! Wait.. what?  
“Why would I even ask what happened if I wanted to ‘break’ you.” Was the word ‘break’ the correct word he should have used? 

“... what do you want?” 

“I don’t know either.” They blankly stared at each other. Before Hadrian snorted. 

“Really? How unlike you Riddle.” The older one of them glared at the first year, but there was really no malice in the glare.  
“You’re probably thinking why I didn’t go with Fleamont home...” He begins as Tom looks at him curiously. “My parents... they asked me not to come home for Yule.” After hearing that, he immediately replied. 

“Why? Is it because you were sorted to Slytherin?” 

“Obviously.” He scoffs. “I expected it to happen. And me crying about it is so stupid.. actually, this whole ordeal is stupid. Why am I crying about something I expected?!” 

Without even realizing it. Tom had his palm on top of Hadrian’s messy hair, who unconsciously leaned into the touch. Tom froze and... _1... 2... 3..._  
Hadrian had jerked away.

“Umm... that’s awkward.”

“Yeah. Why did I do that?” That made Hadrian giggle. He liked his giggle. 

“Is Tom Marvolo Riddle growing a soft spot for Hadrian Henry Potter?” That earned him a smack on the head from the older boy. 

“Why did I even concern myself...” He leaves Hadrian there, with his shit eating grin that turned into manic laughter.

He and Hadrian didn’t interact much after that. But Tom had stopped terrorizing the younger boy. His followers might have noticed the sudden change but didn’t dare comment. Tom had only heard stuff about Hadrian through Abraxas Malfoy. And said boy might have noticed his interest in Hadrian and continued to speak aimlessly about him. 

Tom felt jealous of Abraxas??? 

He constantly wanted to switch places with Malfoy, and the reason isn’t that he was a pureblood. But the reason was Hadrian. 

He hated seeing Hadrian and Abraxas together.

He hated how Hadrian would smile immediately when he sees Abraxas.

He hated how Abraxas could make Hadrian laugh so hard, that he had to hold his sides.

He **loathed** how close Abraxas was to Harry-

_Merlin_. What the fuck is wrong with him?

One day. A day before the dreadful summer hits. 

Hadrian Henry Potter had approached him. In the middle of going to the great hall for dinner. Looking sheepish. Quivering nervously. And having a _oh so cute_ blush on his face.

“Riddle?” Tom turns around immediately after hearing the familiar voice he had wanted to hear for so long.

“Potter? Do you need anything?” Abraxas and Lestrange who were beside Tom gave Hadrian a small smile as a greeting. 

Hadrian licked his dry lips and starts walking to Tom even closer. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. 

“Riddle. Thanks for not making fun of me when you saw me... in the astronomy tower.. in Yule.” He murmured before drawing closer to Tom. They could practically feel each other’s _hot_ breath. Tom didn’t pull away and he didn’t regret not pulling away. Hadrian gave him a small peck on the lips. 

The pureblood stood there for a couple of seconds, before running away while covering his face. Leaving a stunned Tom and shocked and aghast students who saw them. Malfoy and Lestrange went completely white, they looked like their souls left their vulnerable and mortal body. 

Tom blushed a bright crimson red, his face hot and warm, that you could practically see steam coming out. He swore he had fainted after that whole ordeal.


	2. Tom and Hadrian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of crushing, denial, and confession. (And Horcruxes)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won’t lie, I started thinking about how I’ll end this story(because I actually _plan_ to finish this one day). And I haven’t got an idea. The chapters from now on won’t probably be as long as this one, sorry;;;  
> And also, just a head’s up. Since the original death eaters, who were also in Tom’s gang doesn’t have any name, just their last names. I decided give them names. Here they are:  
> Saros Lestrange  
> Castor Avery  
> Theodore Nott Sr.  
> Deimos Mulciber  
> And Caelus Rosier  
> I might change some of the names except for Lestrange and Nott’s. Lestrange’s name is the only one currently written here.
> 
> Edited: 6 July 2019  
> Small Edit: 7 December 2019 - changed Hadrian’s mother’s original surname to Selwyn instead of Fleamont.

The next year, Tom’s fourth year and Hadrian’s second year.  
Abraxas Malfoy had come with his parents at platform 9 3/4 and... Hadrian at tow, who was clutching Abraxas’ sleeve. Why was that? Last time Tom remembered seeing Hadrian in platform 9 3/4(when school started), was with the Potters and Fleamont, his older brother.  
And the way the Malfoys scowled at the Potters when they saw each other made him even more curious. What happened in the summer?

The door of the compartment, Tom was sitting alone in, opened slightly to reveal Malfoy, Avery, Lestrange, Rosier, Mulciber, Nott and most curiously, Hadrian.

“Riddle,” Lestrange turned to look at Tom. His voice filled with great regard and respect.

“Lestrange, Malfoy, Avery, Rosier, Mulciber, Nott and... Potter.” He greeted them _coldly_. They noted how his voice softened a little bit at the end but said nothing. Afraid of how Tom might take their ‘teasing’.

“May we sit with you?” Tom nodded before turning his attention back to the book he was reading.

None of them sat on his side of the bench, much to Tom’s delight. It was quite humorous as the seven purebloods crammed themselves on the other side. Hadrian sat nearest the window- he was close enough that Tom could sneak in a glance without anyone noticing. And Mulciber was the one farthest away from Tom and nearest the door.

Irritatingly and unsurprisingly, Tom wasn’t able to focus on his book. He found his attention completely on Hadrian, who sat silently, looking outside the window and occasionally turning to look at Malfoy and say something Tom couldn’t hear. Which was weird. Hadrian was usually talkative to the point that it was annoying. (Not really, Tom liked hearing Hadrian’s cheery voice)

Tom didn’t even realize that he was staring at Hadrian until said boy turned to glance at him. He quickly looked down back at his book. 

Malfoy had drawn his wand slightly from under his sleeve and none verbally summoned a newspaper on the ground. He coughed rather loudly to get Tom’s attention, who raised an eyebrow before his eyes landed on the Daily Prophet paper that Malfoy was signaling at him to look at.  
On the paper says: 

> ##### HADRIAN HENRY POTTER DISOWNED
> 
> Just earlier today, Henry Potter and Ophelia Potter (née Selwyn) were seen...

_Oh_. That’s why. 

It left a bad taste in his mouth. How can- how dare they disown someone so sweet? Hadrian was such a nice, pleasant child-

Wait. No. What was he saying?

“Why are you glaring at the floor? Did it do something to you?” Hadrian says, smiling. The pureblood start snickering but promptly stopped when Tom sent them a sharp look. Malfoy stood silent, but he gave Tom a smile.

“Shut up Potter.” At that Hadrian’s smile widened. 

“Are you sure? I thought you liked hearing my voice.” Hadrian retorted, there was no seriousness in his voice. 

Tom twitched as he felt the hot heat of a blush rushing on his face and he buried his face in his book. Hadrian noticed and went completely silent, before blushing too. Well... Hadrian now definitely knows that Tom liked hearing his voice. 

_‘Dumb Tom!’_ He cursed at himself. He should have just glared at him instead of hiding behind his book. 

The other purebloods whom Tom forgot about, shifted uncomfortably upon seeing this. 

Ah. He really hated Hadrian. Since after that Yule night, his emotions had been uncontrollable lately.

* * *

“Riddle.” Tom turned around to face the blond pureblood and raised an eyebrow. They had unboarded the Hogwarts Express a few hours ago and it was currently 11 PM. After curfew and they, Malfoy and he are pretty much both breaking rules. 

“Isn’t it after curfew now? What are you doing here?” 

“Shouldn’t I be saying the same to you?” Malfoy replied before pausing. “Anyway. I’m just here to say thanks.” He continued.

“For what?” Tom had an idea what but decided to act dumb. 

“For making Hadrian smile earlier... after you know... the disownment, he rarely smiled actually.” 

“I’m assuming that Ha- Potter stays in your manor now?” Tom coughed to hide his slip. Hadrian and he aren’t close, it was deemed inappropriate if he called him by his first name. Malfoy noticed but didn’t comment and instead nodded. “You know you could have waited in the dorm room to thank me instead of going outside.” 

“Uh, that’s the problem. My parents asked Headmaster Dippet to let me share Hadrian’s room and he agreed.” He stammered nervously and Tom twitched. He and Hadrian were sharing a room?!?!

**HUH?!?!**

Malfoy who sensed his aura stepped back a bit. And at that moment, Tom wanted to rip Malfoy to shreds. But the question was: why?  
Why was he so angry at the fact that Hadrian was gonna share a room with Malfoy? And more importantly, why does he want to be the one sharing a room with him? He and Hadrian weren’t even remotely close! The only reason Tom knew him in the first place was because of Malfoy and the others. If he had no relation to any of pureblood heirs in Tom’s gang, Hadrian would just be _another_ pureblood. (But honestly. Tom doubted that. Hadrian would catch his attention in another way. Even if he was muggle born. There was just something about Hadrian that lured Tom in.)

He inhaled sharply, trying to calm his aura and nerves. There was really no reason for him to be jealous after all.

* * *

Hadrian would usually join Tom and his group, or ‘Knights of Walpurgis’, almost every day (mostly due to Malfoy). And acted like he didn’t kiss Tom just a few months ago, but it was such an awkward subject no one even dared to comment about it. Tom was even more surprised with himself that he didn’t strangle Hadrian on the train after his little stunt (that he won’t admit that he _really_ liked). Instead, he actually felt mushy inside and wanted to feel Hadrian’s _soft_ lips against his again- 

**_Wait What?_** Did he desire Hadrian? Tom feigned a gag and slapped himself mentally. He didn’t want or need physical interaction. _Specially not from someone like Hadrian Potter_. Tom reminded himself. Affection and fondness were for the weak and Tom weren’t weak, he was the opposite... but deep down inside he knew that love wasn’t for the weak. The most powerful men and women had it inside of them. The desire to protect those they love further strengthens their goal. And Tom _craved_ for someone to love and vice versa.

“Malfoy,” says a voice, full of disdain that the owner practically spat the name out. Lestrange, Nott, Avery, Malfoy, and Hadrian stopped talking to each other upon hearing the voice (Tom wasn’t sure where Mulciber and Rosier were, but he didn’t care enough to ask around.)

“Potter. Do you need anything?” Abraxas Malfoy said calmly. But Tom could clearly see the spite and animosity in his eyes as Hadrian grips the blonde’s Slytherin robe.

“Nothing, really. Just surprised how accepting you are to my _ex_ -brother,” he pauses and smirks as Malfoy's glare becomes visible. “Considering being disowned is a pretty pathetic thing. And I least expected slim snakes like you,” despite how friendly the other purebloods were to Hadrian. It was mostly directed to Malfoy. “Would accept Hadrian here.”

Tom wanted to punch him. But they were in the halls. Students were loitering around and Tom couldn’t risk falling out of favor. Guess he would have to think of _another way_.

“Fleamo- Potter,” much to everyone's surprise, it wasn’t Malfoy who replied. It was Hadrian. “If that’s all. You should probably run along now. Unless you want others to think you’re still talking to the brother you _**disowned**_.” Fleamont Potter looked enraged but didn’t say anything. If he did. It would most likely something he would regret. He simply sneered and walked away with his group that Tom didn’t bother to recognize. 

The purebloods (other than Hadrian himself) gave him a pat on the back. While Tom gave Hadrian a small smile, that said person only notices. To others, it was just a blank look, but to Hadrian, it was entirely different. (Tom didn’t notice the red streak on Hadrian’s face and the sheepishness he had when they kissed.)

The first half of the year pretty went like that. Tom and Hadrian had started talking a lot now. And Tom would find himself looking forward to speaking and discussing random things that came to mind. Tom would normally find these kinds of talking annoying and/or unnecessary but talking to Hadrian made him feel like he’s on cloud nine. And he hoped that Hadrian felt the same thing whenever they talk to each other- No! He didn’t like Hadrian. And he doesn’t feel anything whenever Hadrian speaks to him! No! Tom was just humouring him and _using_ him. That’s right. He can’t feel anything but the two emotions driving him. Tom reassures himself.

“Riddle?” Tom snaps out of his trance and looked at the one who called his name. It was Abraxas Malfoy and Hadrian beside him. 

“What?” Tom barked out. Hadrian flinched, he looked quite jumpy (and Tom will never say that he felt a twinge of guilt.).

“I was asking if you wanted to go to the Malfoy Manor to Yule,” Malfoy added casually. Tom instinctively looked at Hadrian, who looked hopeful??? Thankfully Hadrian didn’t notice Tom looking at him but Malfoy definitely did (but wisely didn’t comment).

“Sure,” he replied. Tom was planning something else for Yule at Hogwarts. But after seeing Hadrian’s hopeful face, he couldn’t bring himself to say no. (And again Tom doesn’t admit that seeing Hadrian’s face light up after hearing Tom’s answer, made his heart skip a beat.)

Also one more thing to note. His so-called ‘jealousy’ grew even more. Every time he would see Hadrian holding or close to Malfoy. Tom wanted to rip Hadrian away from the blond and hold the 2nd year close to him. He wanted all of the boy’s attention for himself and frustratingly he didn’t know why.

Tom had never gone somewhere for Yule. So when he followed Malfoy and Hadrian to the train, curious and shocked eyes trailed them (well mostly Tom).

And he definitely didn’t feel mushy inside whenever his and Hadrian’s hands would brush against each other.

“Hadrian!” Malfoy’s mother had rushed to Hadrian’s side almost immediately after seeing them. “Has Potter bothered you?”

“Fleamont Potter had but... Hadrian said something. It was enough for Potter to leave him alone.” The younger Malfoy said quite proudly. And both adult Malfoys smiled at that.

“And what about Abraxas?” The woman at the side of Hadrian had asked and gave a look to her own son, who gulped. 

“Abraxas had been good to me actually.” He pauses. “Sometimes he becomes overprotective that it’s annoying,” Hadrian said with a sneer, but it was obvious that he felt the opposite.

“That’s good then.” She says before turning to at Tom curiously. “Who might this be?”

“Tom Marvolo Riddle. A pleasure to be your acquaintance.” Tom replied drily with a hint of respect.

“Oh, charming. A mud- muggle-born or half-blood?” Mrs. Malfoy asks as she struggled to drown the offensive insult. “Because I haven’t heard the last name Riddle before.”

“He’s definitely half-blood if anything else. Who would name their kid _Marvolo_?” Although it was meant as a joke, something clicked in Tom’s head. Marvolo... that was never a common muggle name. Perhaps that’s a lead to find his family?

“Oh and also. I think Hadrian might have a crush on him.” Abraxas Malfoy jokingly said. Hadrian and Tom both simultaneously blushed a deep beet red before Hadrian hits Malfoy, who just took to giggling.

“Shut up Abraxy!” 

“You hit like a girl Hadrian.” This caused Hadrian to kick him in the shin, in consequence. Abraxas had to bend down to hold his pained shin.

“Deserved that,” he says, still scowling and blushing.

“Wouldn’t that be a problem for you Abraxas?” Mr. Malfoy finally said, which caused the younger Malfoy to peer at his father. “You used to like Hadrian a _lot_ when you were still a little child- I remember you would beg me to bring you to parties Hadrian and… the Potters attended. And every time you would steal Hadrian away from anyone-”

“Father. No.” He rudely interrupted before his father could continue.

Tom watched silently, amused. 

“That’s rude interrupting your father like that,” Hadrian commented which caused the Malfoy patriarch to chuckle. 

“Why did this backfire on me.”

“You don’t mess with Hadrian!” Hadrian puffed up his chest proudly. And Tom ‘shamefully’ giggled lowly at that. The younger boy whipped his head towards Tom.

“You CAN laugh!” Tom coughed loudly, trying to stop his giggle. “What are you talking about?” He asks, still trying to suppress his amusement.

“Hadrian can make anyone smile, even stuck up prats-” Mr. Malfoy managed to say before getting hit playfully by his wife. 

Honestly, he didn’t expect it to pan out this way.

* * *

They all apparated outside of the Malfoy manor wards with a loud ‘pop’. Hadrian was the one who toured him around and seemed to be determined to hear Tom laugh again. It was incredibly… heartwarming????? Tom wasn’t sure how to describe it. (Also he almost threw up after realizing that he- Tom Marvolo Riddle, actually laughed.)

For the next two weeks Tom had busied himself in the huge library in the Malfoy Manor. No one really bothered him except Hadrian (whom he would never admit that he liked seeing). And he appreciated that. Most notably, however. He found out something interesting. Marvolo Gaunt, a man who shared his middle name (however he died just after Tom was born) and the House of Gaunt, rumored to be Salazar Slytherin’s descendants and consequently, able to speak to snakes and able to understand the language itself. It was interesting, to say the least. His father was a muggle, not a wizard and his mother was the witch who died by something muggle-ly as childbirth (fully aware that she could have saved herself by using magic). Tom sneers inwardly.

_Pathetic_

“Riddle?” He hears Hadrian squeak his name. It was the 31st of December, new year’s eve and also _his birthday_. But no one really knew that except for his gang but he doesn’t expect them to remember and it wasn’t like his birthday was anything special. Tom was just growing older (and thus going closer to _it_ ). Plus the things he got for Yule (mostly quills, parchment, and things with really no sentimental value) was enough. 

“What?” He answers and saw Hadrian’s head peeking in the library where Tom was sitting. “Do you need anything?” That came out more gently than he expected honestly.

Hadrian straightens his back and enters, approaching him, his hands behind his back presumably hiding something. Tom owlishly looked at him and arched an eyebrow. A small streak of light pink was plastered on Hadrian’s face, greatly contrasting his green colored eyes, and he was looking at the ground fidgeting nervously.

“Here,” Hadrian held out a black leather book with ‘Tom Marvolo Riddle’ sewn into it. “Happy Birthday, Riddle.”

Tom definitely **didn’t** feel like his heart melted.

“Potter…” Tom says softly as he rose up. His attention completely on Hadrian’s nervous shaking figure.

“I noticed that the…” Hadrian pauses thoughtfully. “Journal you were writing in was relatively full so… I decided to make you one- well kind of.” He says before courageously meeting Tom’s eyes.  
“I bought the journal itself but I sew your name on it- don’t make fun of me for liking to sew- I had to use a bit of magic though. And I even made a quill for it too!” Hadrian rambles on nervously.

Tom took and accepted the gift from Hadrian’s hand and gave him a genuine smile (that he surprised himself with). And immediately Hadrian smiled giddily, his green eyes lighting up into beautiful nature green ones. The gifts… were definitely something Tom would remember forever.

Before he could even stop himself, Tom thanked Hadrian… gratefully and sweetly. “Thank you…” 

_Wait…_ was that genuine? No, he didn’t feel gratitude. He simply said those words because… it was just what you’re supposed to say when receiving something… yes. That’s right.

He definitely isn’t growing a soft spot for Hadrian.

* * *

Tom stood in front of Gringotts and held his chin up high. It was finally time to confirm if he was actually a member of the disgraced House of Gaunt. But Tom was 100% sure he was one, but who knows really. 

Tom was slightly ashamed that he hadn’t found out genetic tests that are held in Gringotts earlier and thus making it a hundred times easier for Tom to know who his parents were. But even if he knew about it, money would be a problem. Although thankfully he had enough money to buy a genetic test, albeit it would be the cheapest one, which is the basic one. It was too bad, but it would do.

The way that Tom found out about genetic tests was quite amusing.

_“Hey Riddle,” a certain green-eyed boy called for him. “Have you ever thought about who your parents are?” Hadrian sat down beside him on the grass outside of the Malfoy Manor._

_Tom raised an eyebrow at the random question. “I have. Although I really have no way of knowing who they are.” He replies and looks at the Hadrian, who was looking at him incredulously. “What?” Tom blurted out._

_“That’s what genetic tests are for, Riddle.” Hadrian informed him in a matter of fact way. This information actually surprised Tom._

_“Genetic tests?” At his confused tone, the younger boy gave him a face that pretty much screamed ‘seriously’?_

_“You don’t know what they are?” Tom nodded in confirmation and Hadrian suddenly looked thoughtful. “How do I explain it…. It’s a test, or kind of a ritual I guess you could call it, where you find out about your heritage through your blood.”_

_“Oh?”_

_“Yeah. The extensive one is really expensive though. Costs a lot of galleons. But the short one only cost I think 3 galleons.” Hadrian told him, smiling. (The same smile that Tom really liked.)_

_“I might buy one then… when we get back.” Tom was definitely going to buy one. This discovery was good. Something that would help him to uncover the mystery, that is his heritage._

_“Really?” Hadrian frantically searches for something in his pocket and his face lit up upon finding it. Three galleons were in his hand. “Here, it’s not much but I know you’re tight with money.”_

_That… that was rather sweet… He felt his face heat up and he notices Hadrian tilt his head._

_“Riddle?” He asks, worry in his voice. “Are you okay? Your face is a little red.”_

_Oh. Sometimes, no matter how self-aware Hadrian most of the time. Sometimes, just sometimes, he’s a little… dense._

_“Potter, you shouldn’t-”_

_“I insist.” Hadrian interrupts him almost immediately with a determined look on his face as he still held the three galleons for Tom to take. Tom accepted and didn’t stop a smile the small smile from appearing._

_“Call me Tom, Potter.”_

“Tom, you look like true pureblood stuck up prat with your nose so high.” Tom turned to look at Hadrian, who decided it was his right to know what his heritage is after giving the three galleons. 

“Do shut up _Hadrian_.” Since Tom had told Hadrian to call him by his first name (Tom actually got surprised that he even offered that. No one was allowed to call his first name. Unless you’re Hadrian Henry Potter.)

They both entered the Wizarding bank and Tom had let Hadrian drag him by the _hand_ to a goblin... that Hadrian seemingly knows. How the hell did Hadrian get acquainted with a goblin? But most importantly, how the hell did he make friends with an unfriendly goblin?

“Hadrian... hmm, do you need anything?” The goblin stared at Tom then to his hand, which Hadrian was still holding. 

“Have you finally acquired-”

“Griphook, no!” Hadrian lets go of Tom’s hand (much to both of their dismay) before flushing in embarrassment.

“This is Tom Riddle, he wants to take a heritage test.”

“And does Mr. Riddle have a payment?” Griphook the goblin then stood up slightly to stare at Tom again expectantly. Tom hands him seven galleons. 

“The short one then... follow me.” The goblin stood up and heads for a room as Tom and Hadrian follow him. 

Tom hissed as he felt the shock from the sharp pointed knife piercing his skin. Hadrian sat quietly, observing the procedure like an owl, his head tilting slightly. 

“I must say... normally people would rather be alone for this kind of test.” Griphook comments, his eyes completely focused on the paper revealing some of Tom’s information. But Tom was completely aware of what he was referring to.

“I donated three galleons for it!” Hadrian huffs. The goblin gave Hadrian a look but dropped it and replaced it with a shocked look when he saw what was written on the paper.

**Tom Marvolo Riddle/Tom Riddle Jr.**

**Age** : 15

 **Blood Status** : Half-Blood (Muggle Father & Pure Blood Mother)

 **Biological Mother** : Merope Riddle (née Gaunt) (deceased)

 **Biological Father** : Tom Riddle Sr.

 **Biological Siblings** : None

 **Lordship** : Gaunt, Slytherin, Peverell

 **Heir** : Gaunt, Slytherin

“TOM, YOU’RE THE SLYTHERIN HEIR!” Hadrian stood up, a giddy smile on his face. “I knew it, you were something special!” 

Tom’s heart definitely _didn’t _flutter.__

* * *

“So. Like you can talk to snakes right?” Hadrian whispered to him while they were heading back to Hogwarts. 

Tom nodded and Hadrian’s eyes lit up. “I have an idea, don’t wait for me and just get going.” He says before running off somewhere.

The next time Tom saw him was at dinner. He had rushed to the great hall, holding a giant snake, calmly, while the others screamed in fear and backed off. Tom gave him a ‘what the fuck’ look.

 _'Stupid human. Treating me like I’m some pet.’_ hisses the snake, and Tom almost chuckles.

“Hadrian. You’re one of the most bewildering people I have ever met.” He comments.

“It’s hissing, Tom! What it’s saying?” Hadrian blatantly ignored him in favor of the snake. 

_‘Foolish human! Calling me an it! I’m a she!’_

“Potter! Get it out!” Came the voice of a horrified Merrythought. 

“But it’s not harming anyone!” He retorts while everyone just looks at him petrified, although Malfoy was looking at him amused.

 **“GET IT OUT!”** She says again but strictly this time. Hadrian visibly deflated and a frown marred his face as he turns back around to drop the snake outside.

“Hadrian had always been like that... picking up snakes... it horrified my parents when he picked an anaconda and brought it home.” The blond idly comments as everyone shakily sat back down on their seat. 

“Really?” Tom asks, still shocked. 

“Yeah. I have no idea where he gets the snakes from though..” 

“Since when did Hadrian and Riddle became so close that they’re on first name basis now?” Lestrange commented and giving Riddle an amused look.

“Yule,” Hadrian replies as he comes back empty-handed and disappointed. “Nagini was such a pretty snake too...”

“Nagini?” Dolohov looked at Hadrian still shaken.

“The snake.” 

“You named it?!?” 

“Nagini’s a pretty snake. Like I told you.”

“You’re terrifying sometimes, Potter.” 

“I know,” he says before smiling, that was... borderline creepy. Tom gestures for the one sitting beside him, Mulciber to move. He raised an eyebrow but complied, stood up and sat beside the Malfoy heir. The Slytherin heir taps the empty seat beside him. Hadrian quirked an eyebrow and sat, the creepy smile still on his face. And Lestrange smiles mischievously.

“Ooh, Hadrian and Riddle sitting in a tree, K-I” Hadrian’s smile dropped and became mortified that he sent a stinging jinx at Lestrange, who cackled as he dodged the hex.

* * *

It was currently in the early hours of the morning. If you check with a tempus spell, it would be exactly 2 am. Normally students would be asleep at this hour, considering they had to wake up before 8 am if they didn’t want to miss breakfast. But this is Tom we’re talking about. Who cares about curfew when you have a Chamber of Secrets, Salazar Slytherin left for him, the Slytherin _heir_ to explore?

T’was rather weird to enter girls’ loos, Tom will admit. But no can do. 

He hisses in Parseltongue in front of the multiple faced sinks and waited. The top of the sink lifted itself as the mirrored sinks separated to reveal a hidden large pipe. Tom scrunched his nose. He had to fall didn’t he?  
He stepped forward and looked down the tunnel. He couldn’t see anything as expected, it was too dark. Tom eyed it before closing his eyes and jumping straight down. 

The Slytherin heir groaned as he hit.. bones? Tom opened his eyes and saw the hundreds of bones, most of them were carcasses (but who knows), filled the muddy and unused tunnels. Well, at least he thinks so. The legend said that there was a basilisk in the chamber of secrets. The only problem was: _where is it_? 

Tom left marks here and there to not get lost. Eventually, after climbing countless of tunnels, he found... dead skin of a long animal. Then it hits _the basilisk_. He smirks. 

He was finally near it.

Then finally, after walking and walking he was met with a solid wall with two serpents entwined carved into it. Tom stared at the emerald green eyes of the snakes. _Too green_ , he thought. 

They were too green to his liking. The green he liked was Hadrian’s ones. He knew he could get lost in them if he stared too much. 

Tom coughed and cleared his throat before hissing in Parseltongue. The solid wall parted slowly as it revealed the chamber, the statue of Salazar Slytherin standing proudly, untouched. 

_“Who’sssss there?”_ He heard a hiss, sounding through the chamber. Tom smiled in satisfaction. He had found the basilisk. And his goal was now.... to _tame_ it.

* * *

“You look like you didn’t sleep.” Hadrian commented as he hopped over to Tom’s side.

“Do I?” 

“I told you that you should sleep instead of reading in that dumb book of yours.” Hadrian replies to his short and tired reply, with a suspiciously reprimanding tone. 

“It’s not dumb, and you’re only saying it’s dumb because you don’t ever read books.” Tom retorted and the younger Slytherin huffs. “I actually have a social life, unlike you, Tom.” Tom just rolled his eyes. 

They entered the Grand Hall quickly (much to Tom’s dismay). Tom frowned disappointedly when Hadrian went back to Malfoy’s side and sat with him for breakfast. Lestrange immediately sticking to his side and making fun of him. 

“So when’s the wedding?” Tom perked up hearing Lestrange’s teasing voice. 

“NEVER!” Hadrian pushes Lestrange away playfully. The other snakes were pretty amused. 

“Hey. I never said who.” The Lestrange defended, as he easily fights off Hadrian’s hand.

“Knowing you _Saros_ , you’re talking about Tom.” 

“You don’t know that. I might have been talking about Black.” Both Walburga and Orion Black choked on nothing from a few seats away.

“Which one?”

“Orion Black,”

“Orion Black is promised to Walburga Black.” 

“That’s why eloping exist.” 

“SHUT UP LESTRANGE!” The Slytherin table heard both Blacks yell at Lestrange, who just cackled like a maniac.

* * *

In May, Tom managed to tame the basilisk. Impressive considering how hard headed the basilisk was. 

Since Hadrian was the only one who knew he was the Slytherin heir. Tom felt the need to tell him everything that happened. He knew it was stupid. Hadrian might snitch on him, but the young boy didn’t seem like someone who would betray a friend. And a Cruciatus curse and obliviate would fix it if he did decide to snitch (although Tom had an idea that he couldn’t raise his wand against Hadrian).

Hadrian’s green eyes lit up in anticipation as he watched the top of the sinks lift up. 

Tom stepped near the pipe, in which Hadrian approaches it cautiously. 

“Ummm… I don’t have to go down there right?” Hadrian looks at Tom worriedly and he almost chuckled. 

“You have to,”

“Uh, so like. Can you carry me?”

“Isn’t it kind of weird that Salazar Slytherin would build this under the girls’ loos?” Hadrian idly comments behind Tom, straightening out his robes. And yes, Tom did actually carry him, not like he really mind. Hadrian was really light considering he was 12 years old. The blush on Hadrian was still visible if you stare at him enough.

“I haven’t thought about that.” Tom admits stopping to look at Hadrian. “Why would he build this under the girls’ loos?” 

“Was he a pervert?”

They both imagined it and cringed. Dropping the topic almost immediately.

“What’s the basilisk’s name?” Hadrian asks curiously as both he and basilisk stared at each other.

“She doesn’t have a name.” 

“Susan,” 

“What?” Tom gave him the same ‘what the fuck’ look he gave him when he brought a snake in the great hall. “Out of all the names, you chose the name, Susan? For a _basilisk_? Are you serious?”

“Yep,” Hadrian grinned.

 _“I like it.”_ The basilisk understanding the human language hissed out and slithered towards Hadrian. 

“What’d she say?” Hadrian asked as he rubs the basilisk’s scales, which she seemed to like. 

“She said she liked it.”

“Her name’s Susan now then!” Tom covered his face with both of his palms. Why the hell did he even let Hadrian name the basilisk?

 _“Master’ssss mate is nice,”_ the basilisk, now named Susan, hisses out. And Tom _choked_.

 _“Mate?!?!? Hadrian isn’t my mate!”_ Tom hissed back, taken aback. But the basilisk just… smiled? Actually, it wasn’t smiling, but Tom had the feeling it was smiling.

 _“Master isss denial. I sssmell it on you, Massster. You like him.”_

“Hey. I feel left out. What are you talking about?” Tom turns his attention back to Hadrian and ignores the basilisk.

“Nothing, meaningless things Hadrian.” The basilisk would have rolled her eyes if she could.

* * *

“Write to me, Tom!” Hadrian shouts at him as Tom exits the Hogwarts Express, the Malfoy family smiling kindly. 

“Just kiss already!” Lestrange yelled at them from a distance. A few 5th to 7th girls from all houses giggled at this. After the stunt Lestrange did, AND the fact that they technically have kissed made both he and Hadrian popular to the phenomena called ‘shipping’. 

“Watching this budding romance is so irritating! Just confess!” Walburga Black chimed in. He didn’t know when she joined Lestrange with this ‘teasing’ and when she joined Hadrian’s group of friends. And frankly, Tom wasn’t interested. Hadrian had always attracted a lot of people to become his friends, and Tom was one of them.

“Oh come on ‘Burga! You can’t join him!” Hadrian yelled back dismayed. “I and Riddle are just friends!” He adds.

“Riddle ain’t complaining!” Tom snorts before turning back to the exit. 

“I’ll write to you, Hadrian.” He disappeared and reappeared in King’s Cross Station between platform 9 and 10. Tom groaned inwardly. He didn’t want to go back to the orphanage, but alas… Headmaster Dippet wouldn’t let him stay in Hogwarts.

* * *

The summer wasn’t that bad. It was still begrudingly annoying to deal with the other people, but Hadrian’s letter made him feel a lot better.

At first, it was small talk and then it turned into full-length mini-novels whenever they wrote to each other. Hadrian would send him something that he bought from the Diagon Alley, mostly books about Salazar Slytherin (that Tom would admit were quite interesting). And tell him about the events that happened every day.

Tom would never admit it, but he still felt really jealous about how close Malfoy and Hadrian were. 

Then one summer day…

“Tom, are you in?” Mary, a matron that Tom could actually stand knocked at his door. 

Tom opens the door and raised an eyebrow.

“Ah great. There’s a kid- he said that you were a schoolmate, that’s asking for you. His name is Hadrian Potter, I think.” She pauses to look at Tom’s brightening eyes. “Do you know him?” 

“Yes… where is he?” 

“At the ground floor-” she didn’t have the time to finish her sentence when Tom bolted out of his room. 

Did Hadrian seriously came to visit him??? 

He saw other teens flocking towards Hadrian when he got down. Hadrian looked extremely nervous.

“He’s so pretty!” Tom twitched as he heard one of the girls squealing.

“Hadrian.” When he spoke, the children looked at him then backed off as they felt Tom’s gaze on them. 

“Heya Tom,” 

“How the hell did you find me- no scratch that. Why did you come here?” His voice didn’t hold any malice. Actually, he felt really happy that Hadrian even thought about visiting him.

“Abraxas was being insufferable- and to top that off, Saros and ‘Burga decided to visit. Let me crash with you for a while.” 

“In a _muggle_ orphanage?” Tom looks at him suspiciously.

“Why not?” Hadrian shrugged. The older boy approached him and was only inches away from his face. 

“Hadrian. There’s a world war going-”

“You worried?” Hadrian stares at him and smiles. “Awww, little Tommy is worried for his friend.” 

Tom grabs his nose in retaliation. Every single one of orphans there looked at Hadrian worriedly. They knew how vicious Tom could be, especially when he’s insulted. Tom would _hurt_ anyone in the orphanage, even the matrons. But after Tom’s 3rd year in the ‘boarding school’ in Scotland, he mysteriously starts mellowing out. Tom would mostly ignore the other orphans who start calling him a freak or a different variation of the insult, he, after all, used to make anyone regret ever saying that to his face by making them hurt... in mysterious ways. He became really different- or was he? No, he wasn’t. One foolish orphan had tested how different Tom was and he ended up having to be rushed to the hospital then had to stay there for a couple of weeks. When he got back to the orphanage, he would deliberately avoid Tom and would whimper whenever he would see him. And everyone got the message. Tom wasn’t any different from his vicious demeanor, he just simply got wiser and decided to ignore the petty insults thrown at him.

So when Tom didn’t do anything drastic after pulling the mysterious boy’s nose, they got surprised. Bewildered even. 

“What the hell did you do to them?” Hadrian finally says as he got out of Tom’s hold, eyeing the cowering orphans. “Did you terrorize them? Wow, Tom.” He says amused.

“Shut up Hadrian,” 

“So can I stay with you?” Hadrian attached himself to Tom’s shirt as the other boy starts retreating. The orphans’ jaw went slack as Tom didn’t even try to push the younger boy away. 

_‘This new Riddle is weird’_ Everyone thought.

At first the head matron had refused to let Hadrian stay but relented when Hadrian, the cheeky little shit he was, gave her puppy dog eyes. But on one condition. He had to stay in Tom’s room, which only had _one_ bed. And much to Tom’s surprise, Hadrian had agreed. Tom didn’t do anything about it. And the matron looked bewildered that Tom didn’t complain since she knew how much Tom valued his space. 

Having Hadrian with him at the orphanage was definitely interesting. They were always together, only separating from each other when Tom had to do some chores. The orphans, despite knowing that he was Tom’s friend (and to an extension, a freak), would flock to him. Tom knew this knowledge and would always try to finish his chores quickly, so Hadrian’s attention would only be focused on him. 

“You know Tom, one of the girls asked me what you liked because she wanted to give you something to confess her feelings.” Hadrian comments while taking a walk with Tom outside the orphanage. 

“Oh?” 

“Her name is... I think Sophia.” Tom raised an eyebrow, interested now. Sophia was the prettiest girl in the orphanage and all the boys desired her. Except for Tom of course. He was never really interested in girls- nor boys. In general, he was never really interested in the subject of romance.

“What did you tell her?” Tom glanced at Hadrian, who scrunched up his nose. 

“Nothing, you dragged me away before I could answer her.” He replies, his eyes straying to look at Tom. The green color turning darker by the second and his eyebrow furrowed. “So are you interested in her?” Tom couldn’t ignore the tone Hadrian had as he said those words. His voice was laced with.... _jealousy_. 

“No,” he says as he ruffled up Hadrian’s already messy bed of hair. His furrowed eyebrows lifted up and his green eyes returned back to its natural color. Was Tom imagining it? _No_ , he couldn’t mistake it. 

As Hadrian said. Sophia had approached him the next day at lunch. She confessed, in front of everybody. All of the boys all looked jealous and were glaring at Tom. Hadrian on the other hand... was glaring at her viciously, he looked ready to kill her. Sophia squeaked upon making eye contact with the younger boy but didn’t leave. Tom had rejected her, Hadrian dropped the glare and favored a small smug smirk.

He and Hadrian got their letters a few days later, the material they needed for the next year was listed. 

Tom had asked why the Malfoys never came looking for him, apparently, Harry had been sending them letters and told them to not look for him.  
Of course, they didn’t follow that.

The very next day, the matron barged into their room. Apparently, some wealthy looking people were looking for someone named Hadrian. And as expected it was the Malfoys.  
When they got down, Malfoy had immediately tackled Hadrian into his arms. 

“Abraxas.” Mrs. Malfoy called for her son reprimandingly. And Malfoy had let go of Hadrian, who looked half dead from not breathing in oxygen, and coughed.

“Riddle, nice to see you again. I’m glad that you didn’t mind Hadrian staying with you.” Mr. Malfoy said, smiling at him. Tom nodded in acknowledgment as Mrs. Malfoy starts scolding Hadrian, who didn’t look even guilty.

* * *

The first half of the year, only a few notable things happened. 

Headmaster Dippet thought it was a good idea to make Tom a prefect. Tom had refused and tried to convince the headmaster that Malfoy was a better choice but the old man wouldn’t budge. At first, he really didn’t like being a prefect but after the appraisal from Hadrian, he came to like the position. 

And of course the Slug club. 

“A toast, to Hogwarts’ brightest and best!” Slughorn says as he held out a glass. 

They were excused from dinner in the Great Hall to attend the supper for the Slug Club. Hadrian was the youngest member. Being the only 3rd year in the room, while the others were 5th years and above. However, nobody questioned why he was there. Everyone knew that Hadrian was pretty much a prodigy in potions and DADA.  
The only members, other than Hadrian, Tom recognized are Malfoy and Lestrange. He didn’t bother to recognize the other six students. They weren’t important.

They all sat on a circular table, Hadrian sat between him and Malfoy, and Lestrange sat beside Tom. The Slytherins sticking together. Fine food was placed on the table, the only Gryffindor there gobbled up all of the food unabashedly. The Slytherins scrunched up their noses in disgust. The four of them didn’t touch their food until Hadrian did. 

Slughorn told them to introduce themselves to each other, much to Tom’s dismay and encouraged them to talk to each other. By the time the meeting was dismissed, Tom was already exhausted. 

“That Gryffindor, he really had no shame did he?” Tom perked up hearing Hadrian’s voice. 

They were lounging in the common room, just talking to each other. Well, Hadrian, Lestrange, and Malfoy were.

“I can’t believe he’s a pureblood!” Lestrange snorted, and the other two made an agreeing noise.

Tom tuned them out in favor of reading the book he had taken from the restricted section called “Secrets of the Darkest Arts”. Other than.. well, ‘exposing’ the secrets of the Dark arts. It reminds the reader of how terrible most of the spells were and it repeated itself almost constantly, but Tom found himself still absorbed in the book. And his patience paid out.

His eyes bulged out in interest as he stared at the title: **HORCRUX**.

>   
>  HORCRUX 
> 
> The Horcrux is the most terrible of all Dark Magic. As it hides a fragment of the caster’s soul, effectively resurrecting them upon death. The first identified Horcrux was made my Herpo the Foul a long time ago in Ancient Greece....  
> 

This... this was an interesting find. There was indeed a way for one to become immortal.

Tom skimmed through the book, trying to find out how to make a Horcrux but it was never written. Never mentioned other than extra information about it. And for a first in a long time, he was frustrated.

* * *

Anytime Tom would visit the Chamber of Secrets, Hadrian would join him and the basilisk grew quite fond of Hadrian. There were a few instances where Hadrian fell asleep because the basilisk was wrapped around him protectively and Tom had to carry him to his and Malfoy’s room. And every single time, without fail. Lestrange and Black would tease him about it. Yes, they did actually know that Tom was the heir of Slytherin. How? 

Well...

_It was a hot afternoon when Nagini, the snake that Hadrian dropped off, slithered towards him._

_‘Human. You smell like a basilisk.’ She hissed at him. ‘Wheres’s the other human? He needs to feed me some rats.’_

_“Hadrian feeds you?” Tom hissed back at her and she looked startled. If she spoke to him like she knew he was a parseltongue, why did she look so startled?_

_‘Speaker!’ She hissed loudly at him, then he heard books drop on the grass._

_“Riddle... YOU’RE A PARSELMOUTH?!?” It was Malfoy, who looked horrified and shocked at the same time. “That means.... you’re the heir of Slytherin.”_

_It didn’t take long before everyone in Slytherin found out that he was the heir (thankfully the professors and the others outside the Slytherin House didn’t hear any of it). Abraxas Malfoy and his big mouth._

* * *

“ _Dormeo magicus!_ ” (1) Tom stared at Hadrian as he yelled an unfamiliar spell at his opponent, a Gryffindor. Nothing happened... his opponent smirked.

“Petrificus Totalus!” The Gryffindor yelled as he moves his wand in a simple pattern but nothing happened. And it was Hadrian’s time to smirk.

“ _Somnus!_ ” (2) Hadrian retaliated and it hit the Gryffindor straight on the chest. 

“Those spells. I haven’t heard of those.” Merrythought says, looking at Hadrian smiling.

“I created them. Dormeo Magicus puts the target’s wand to sleep for a couple of minutes... I’m trying to increase the time. And Somnus puts the target to sleep.” Hadrian explains. 

“20 points to Slytherin!”

“Uhhhmm, professor. You should probably bring him to the hospital wing. I’ve only tried it on Nagini.” Hadrian looked at the Gryffindor in front of him. 

“That’s why she seemed so grumpy every time I see her.” Tom says as he approaches Hadrian. “You should quit that.”

Hadrian’s eyes lit up menacingly. Then at that momen... Tom knew... he _fucked_ up.

“Tom. Will you be my guinea pig?”

* * *

Dumbledore observed the duel between Hadrian Henry Potter and Nicolas Longbottom. He knew that the Slytherin Potter had been considered a prodigy but he didn’t expect him to have actually made two _fine_ spells. He was a 3rd year! 

Hadrian Henry Potter was full of surprises. 

If the Potters hadn’t foolishly disowned the obviously talented boy, he could have influenced Hadrian. 

Dumbledore could try to sway the boy, but Tom Riddle… he was a problem. He and Tom were quite close, close enough that Tom lets the younger boy call him by his first name. Actually, the professor was sure that Hadrian was the closest person to Tom. And he seemed to have affected Tom a lot. Tom’s vicious demeanor starts dimming after Hadrian had joined his group. And Dumbledore wasn’t sure whether he felt glad that they met each other or not. 

He frowns at how Tom approached Hadrian immediately after Merrythought starts checking Nicolas Longbottom. Dumbledore had observed Tom enough to know whether he had malicious intention by how he stands. And he couldn’t find any hidden malice as Tom talks to Hadrian. Tom seems to really like the younger boy… and the feeling was reciprocated.

Perhaps… just perhaps. Hadrian could sway Tom away from the dark side.

* * *

Yule hits again, and this time it was Hadrian who invited him to come to the Malfoy Manor. 

The Malfoy Family was more friendly to him (they probably found out through Malfoy that he was the Slytherin heir) and let him take any books from their library. And while at the manor, he rarely saw Hadrian. He was distraught but Tom didn’t show it. Hadrian was probably busy and he was definitely hiding something. 

30th of December, Hadrian barged in the living room where Tom and the Malfoys were sitting. Upon seeing what Hadrian was holding, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy gawked. 

It was Slytherin’s Locket.

“Oh my…” Mr. Malfoy stood up as Hadrian ran up to a bewildered Tom. 

“Happy early birthday, Tom.” He drops the locket carefully on his lap. Did he really…  
He felt a surge of magic as he touches the locker. _Holy shit_. Hadrian was an incredible boy. And he won’t let anyone say otherwise.

Before Tom could even say thank you. The Malfoys grabbed him. 

“Where did you find Hadrian?” 

“I found in Borgin and Burke’s….” 

“You went to Knockturn Alley?!? Without our permission???” Mrs. Malfoy starts mother henning Hadrian almost immediately, forgetting about the Slytherin locket.

* * *

Slytherin’s locket was safely tucked away along with the journal that Tom got from Hadrian (Tom occasionally used it whenever he wanted to write something he would want to remember) when they got back to Hogwarts. 

Tom felt like he’s forgetting something… _Oh_. His eyes landed on Fleamont Potter, he needed to take revenge. And Susan, the basilisk could help with that. 

Fleamont Potter hadn’t bothered Hadrian at all this year but the confrontation that happened last year was still clear in Tom’s mind. No one insults Hadrian. He doesn’t deserve those insulting words. Especially not from someone who spat him. 

_“Susan…”_ Tom called for the basilisk in Parseltongue (he still couldn’t take the name seriously). And the huge serpent appeared, looking for a particular someone that was not Tom. She slumped down in disappointment when he wasn’t there. 

_‘Isss Hadrian not with you masster?’_ The basilisk hissed out. 

_“No. You’ve grown quite fond of him, haven’t you?”_ He says as the basilisk nodded. _“Speaking of Hadrian. Someone insulted him... and you might help.”_ The basilisk hissed in anticipation before smiling.

The next day, Fleamont Potter got bitten by _something_. And no one knew what. But they knew that he was infected with deadly venom. If he hadn’t rush to the hospital wing, he would have died. It was unfortunate that Fawkes, Dumbledore’s Phoenix was able to heal Potter with his tears.  
When word got out, the Gryffindors (who knew and admired Potter) went on a frenzy and tried to catch the culprit. But no such luck. 

_They were never going to find the culprit_. 

Tom had been standing peacefully, his arms behind his back. Of course, that was until he felt someone staring at him. He whipped his head around to find Hadrian staring at him, with a blank face. It... unnerved Tom.

“It was Susan wasn’t it?” Hadrian whispers to him. When Tom nodded, the younger boy’s face turned into a smile. 

“Stay awake until midnight. And meet me in the common room.” He says before walking away and disappearing from Tom’s view. _What an odd request._

“Where’s Hadrian?!?!” Abraxas Malfoy barged in the common room, his hair sticking out everywhere and his expression in pure distress.

“Chill, I saw him earlier.” Avery said, not looking up from his book. “Said he was gonna do something outside. Don’t know what though.”

“Oh.” Malfoy pauses before slumping on a couch. “Of course. He’s probably in the forbidden forest.” 

Why isn’t Tom even surprised?

Tom taps his fingers impatiently on the couch. It was currently 12:04 am and Hadrian was nowhere to be seen. Actually, he hasn’t seen him since he had asked him to meet him in the common room. What was taking him so long?

Then he hears shuffling, something heavy being dragged and the door to the Slytherin common room opening. Tom stood up and straightened his clothes- wait, what? 

“Sorry for being late. This is so heavy. And it took me a while to sneak around.” Hadrian appeared, apologizing while dragging a bag, a huge bag. And it was bloody.

“What is it?” Tom asks, scrunching his nose.

Flesh, that came from a huge deer.” The younger boy calmly replied. “So... can you like... open the Chamber for me? I need to give this to Susan to thank her.” 

“Hadrian. Do you not really care about what happens to Potter?”

“Nah, he had it coming. And I don’t really care what happens to anyone if it doesn’t affect my friends and of course... the Malfoys.” 

_‘I sssmell flesssh’_ The basilisk hisses as Hadrian and Tom appeared from the entrance. The serpent smiled as she saw Hadrian and immediately curled up around the boy.

 _‘Massster’sss mate...’_ Tom rolls his eyes, she was hopeless. 

_“Susan, Hadrian has something to give you.”_ Her slitted eyes lit up and looked at Hadrian, who held up the bag at her. 

“It’s not much. But I hope you like it—” The huge serpent interrupted him and gobbled up the meat, with the bag.

 _‘Massster’sss mate is much kinder than massster. Thank you’_ Tom glared weakly at the basilisk before turning to look at Hadrian.

“What’d she say?”

“Insulted me and thanked you.” Tom said dryly. He ignores the snort that came from Hadrian.

When they headed back, they didn’t notice a pair of eyes staring at them.

* * *

That was definitely an interesting scene to watch. Tom and Hadrian alone. Side by side. Their hands almost touching. And their robes disheveled. They headed back to the Slytherin common room and disappeared into the dark room. _What did they do?_

It was incredibly suspicious. Would Tom... no. Tom wasn’t able to act like that. Dumbledore has to confront them about it.

That morning, he saw Tom and Harry side by side again. It was the perfect moment to confront them.

“Tom, Hadrian.” Dumbledore approaches them, while the other Slytherins raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Professor Dumbledore, do you need anything?” It was Hadrian who said something.

“If you don’t mind me asking. What were you two doing that late outside of your _respective_ rooms? You two looked like a complete mess. Did something happen?”

* * *

Tom heard multiple strangled gasps coming from the other students who overheard Dumbledore. Hadrian, who could tell what the transfiguration teacher was trying to say, blushed a bright red color. 

“Is it really necessary for you to know, professor?” Tom interrupted Hadrian who was about to say something. 

“I suppose not... but next time, please check the time. 10 points from Slytherin, from each of you two.” Tom let out an audible tsked when Dumbledore was out of the view.

“Was... was he really implying that...”

“That you two possibly snogged each other for an hour? Yes.” Lestrange chirped and approached Hadrian and Tom. “How scandalous, Hadrian.” He wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

“I’m 14!”

“I mean does age really matter anymore?” Tom wacks a book he conjured from nowhere on Lestrange’s head.

* * *

The weeks following 14th of February, Hadrian was awkward around Tom and avoided him the best he could (sometimes, Tom wouldn’t even see him at all). And mostly only talked to Malfoy and the other purebloods. Did Tom do something?

He tried to _subtly_ ask Malfoy about it but the blond would just reassure him that: “Hadrian is just busy.” It was bullshit. And it pissed him off. Malfoy clearly knows the reason why, so why? Why wouldn’t he tell Tom about it???

Everyone steered away from him. Clearly, without Hadrian beside him, no one was safe from Tom’s wrath and more angry than usual.

Tom spent nights in his private prefect quarters (he moved in when he became a prefect) thinking about what he had done for Hadrian to avoid him so. He finally got an answer the morning (10 am for exact) of February 14, 1942, aka Valentines Day. 

Tom heard masculine whispering and giggling before he saw a sheepish and shy looking Hadrian approaching him, his hands behind his back and his face looking at the ground. Tom felt a sense of déjà vu, didn’t he look the same when he kissed Tom the first time? 

“Hadrian?” Hadrian met his eyes, and he saw the very visible crimson blush on his face. It was cute.

“Tom, happy Valentine’s Day.” The younger boy said before holding out some very _expensive_ muggle chocolates and looking at the ground again. “Will you go to Hogsmeade with me today?” Tom blushed and became speechless... so this is why Hadrian was avoiding him huh?

When Tom was still silent, he saw Hadrian slumping down slightly and flinched when he tried to _gently_ grabbed the chocolates from the younger boy’s hands. He only relaxed and peered to look at him when Tom pats Hadrian’s unruly hair. 

“Sure... Hadrian.” Tom finally said and didn’t bother to stop the smile pulling on his lips. Hadrian’s face immediately lit up. 

“I TOLD YOU HADRIAN!” Tom heard a 6th year Walburga Black yell over the wolf whistles and giggling from other students.

“RIDDLE IS HEAD OVER HEELS FOR YOU TOO!-” Lestrange was rudely interrupted by Hadrian who sent a knockback jinx his way.

That afternoon, Hadrian had pretty much dragged him to Hogsmeade along with other couples. A seemingly too happy 3rd year and a ‘grumpy’ 5th-year prefect made quite a sight though, a pretty sight. And it wasn’t like Tom was really annoyed, actually his heartfelt nice that someone sweet like Hadrian would even invite him. Even some of the couples looked at them in bewilderment. (They understood why Hadrian would invite someone _handsome_ as Tom Marvolo Riddle. But it was surprising that Tom would accept. And yes, Tom did get a lot of valentine cards.)

Hadrian sneered as they passed by obnoxiously tacky, frilly, covered with bows, and very cramped shop (that it made Tom a little bit claustrophobic just looking at it) that was named ‘Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop’. Through the windows, they could see tables almost touching each other and hormonal teenagers sitting on them either holding hands or kissing, or both actually. Tom could understand why Hadrian was currently sneering.

“Just looking at it is making me claustrophobic.” The younger boy comments as he turns to look forward.

“Same,” Tom nods in agreement and lets Hadrian drag him somewhere. Probably somewhere more comfortable. Though he noticed Hadrian eyeing the couples in envy, Tom wisely didn't comment.

They both stop in front of a cozy looking cafe. Hadrian opens the door and they were both met with a sweet smell… that reminded Tom of Hadrian’s natural scent and dark magic? What was it?

Tom peered into the cafe and realized where the smell came from. _Amortentia_. But why did it smell like Hadrian? 

“Well? Are you gonna come in or not?” Hadrian says, looking at him. He was already inside, only stopping when he saw that Tom wasn’t following.

The cafe was small, but at least more spacious than the monstrosity of ‘Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop’ and the couples there were decent enough. Only silently flirting and weren’t that intimate with each other, of course, other than occasionally holding hands. 

Hadrian picked a table for them, it was in the corner (apparently it was Hadrian’s corner), which was perfect for Tom. They looked like a normal couple on a date among the others. Which was totally far from the truth. They were _only_ friends after all. 

“Is that Slytherin Potter and Prefect Riddle?”

“Yeah... holy shit.”

Tom snorted as a chubby lady approaches them.

“What?” Hadrian looked at Tom curiously.

“What do you two sweethearts want for today? The lady greeted and smiled sweetly at them. “I’m assuming the usual for you, Hadrian Potter?” Tom raised an eyebrow but stayed silent as Hadrian nodded.

“And what for you Mr...?”

“Riddle, Tom Riddle.” He quickly answered her. “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the menu.” 

“Oh of course!” She pulled out a booklet. “Since it’s Valentine’s Day, we have....”

She started listing the ‘Valentine’s Day’ exclusive menu and Tom scrunched his nose throughout all of it. They all were pink, heart-shaped and possibly filled with sugary goodness. Hadrian who noticed was suppressing his giggles to avoid interrupting the server.

“Eh, how about éclairs and some trifles Tom?” Said person nodded and the lady happily wrote it down before saying that he’ll come back with their order.

“I think I am gonna barf after hearing those pink and ‘love’ cakes.” Hadrian laughs out loud this time.

“It was amortentia that I was smelling earlier right?” Hadrian asks as they exited out the small but cozy cafe. They had mostly talked about random and meaningless things, that made Tom grin (which caused some students who were staring at them to gasp).

“Yes,” Tom confirmed.

“What did you smell?” Hadrian stops and looks at Tom, his eyes filled with childlike curiosity.

“Why? Curious?” The younger boy nodded.

“Dark arts,” Tom didn’t mention that he also smelled the other boy’s natural scent, it would be quite weird and he wasn’t even sure why he smelled Hadrian. 

“Just that?” Hadrian’s shoulder slumped down slightly when Tom nodded (albeit it looked hesitant).

“Oh... well I smelled _just_ treacle tarts.” The green-eyed boy looked away from Tom in favor of the ground. 

He was definitely lying. And like Tom. Didn’t want to say out loud what they truly smelled.

“These are so cute!” Tom and Hadrian whipped their head around to look at a group of couples looking at a window. 

“What are those?” Tom asked without even realizing. Hadrian smiled and dragged him to go closer to the window.

“Love lockets, they’re quite new. They were only released like a year ago.” He met Tom’s eyes and pointed at a pair of lockets, black and white. “Couples usually buy them. They put a picture of themselves and exchange them with one another. Girls lose their shit over these...” 

Tom nodded. He will keep this in mind. Something tells him that he’ll need it someday.

They came back from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts Castle at exactly 5 pm, laughing their asses off. 

“My sides hurt!” Hadrian managed to say before dissolving to laughing again.

“It’s not my fault that I ended up saying it.” Tom giggles softly, not as loud as Hadrian though.

“How’s your date?” They looked up and of course... it was Lestrange. Hadrian retaliated with a levicorpus.

“Shut up Saros!”

* * *

Tom wanted to continue his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin’s novel work. And because of this, he let the large basilisk, Susan, petrify the unworthy muggle-borns. Unfortunately, she hasn’t killed anyone yet. The petrification of Muggle-borns has been causing panic to others. The Slytherins, most being blood supremacists don’t see a problem with this, however. In addition to the fact that students believe that only Slytherins could do this. Because of this, they were seen as the suspects, but there wasn’t any evidence of them doing it. 

“Idiots, the lot of them.” Hadrian huffed into the common room, obviously in an annoyed mood.

“What happened?” Tom lets the younger boy sitting beside him. 

“Gryffindors. They’re so annoying!” He groans and let out a loud thud when he drops to lay on Tom’s thigh. Hadrian doesn’t get off when Tom doesn’t do anything but run his hand through his messy hair. Which he unconsciously leaned to.

e

“Nothing new. Better to ignore them.” Tom continues running his hand through Hadrian’s hair until he hears him snoring. He smiles and looks at Hadrian’s sleeping face.

And regarding Horcruxes...

“Professor Slughorn,” Slughorn turns to look at Tom as the others had already left after the dinner. He was holding a cup of tea.

“Hmm? Do you need anything, Tom?”

“I took a book from the library... form the restricted section and I read something rather unusual about a bit of rare magic. It’s called...” Tom pauses and looks away from the professor before staring at him, “Horcrux.” 

“I’m sorry?” Slughorn was now looking at him, seriously. 

“Horcrux,” he repeated. “I came across the term from reading a book, and I still don’t quite understand it.”

Slughorn narrows his eyes. “I’m not sure what you are reading, Tom but this is very dark stuff.”

“Which is...” He pauses still staring at the professor, “why I came to you.”

“A Horcrux is an object which a person has concealed a part of their soul.”

“But I don’t understand how that works sir.” Tom walks closer to Slughorn.

“One splits their soul and hide part of it in an object, by doing so you are protected, should you be attacked and your body destroyed.”

“Protected?”

“Part of your soul that is hidden lives on, in other words, you cannot die.” Slughorn continues and looks at Tom worriedly, who looks at the fireplace to fire palace to avoid looking at the frowning professor. 

“And how does one split their soul, professor?”

“You already know the answer to that, Tom.”

“Murder,” he guessed.

“Yes, killing rips the soul apart, it’s a violation against nature.”

Tom smirked as he walks back to the Slytherin common room. 

_Just_ murder in exchange for immortality huh.

* * *

Myrtle Warren was sobbing. Olive Hornby had made fun of her because of her glasses, she knew it was dumb but it still hurt. Of course, she stopped crying when she heard a masculine voice outside of the stall she currently locked herself in. This was the girl’s bathroom! What was a boy doing here?!?!

Myrtle slammed the stall door open and was about to yell at the boy to get out but was rendered speechless. She stared at the basilisk, and what a fatal mistake it was.

* * *

Tom gleefully smile and in turn, the basilisk was smiling (he still wasn’t quite sure how) too. It was luck that a muggle born was hiding in the loo when he got in. 

The murder of Myrtle Warren, a muggle-born sorted into Ravenclaw, will be used for his first Horcrux. The leather diary with his name sewn into it. It was one of his precious things, so it felt right.

Tom quickly fled the scene and closed the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets.

* * *

“Did you hear Warren, that mudblood from Ravenclaw has been missing for a few hours now.” Tom heard as he enters the Great Hall. Hadrian taps the seat beside him and the Slytherin prefect settled beside the 3rd year comfortably.

“Tom, have you been feeding Nagini extra again? She looks fat.”

“I haven’t.” Hadrian looked at him suspiciously. Tom had been actually feeding her extra.

 _‘Stupid human, feed me.’_ Came a hiss. A snake appeared and slithered towards the table between Hadrian and Tom. Hadrian who already knew what she was saying (despite not understanding parseltongue at all), rolled his eyes and grabbed a piece of meat that Nagini started munching on.

“That mudblood?” Says Lestrange as he tries his best not to stare at Nagini. “Why should we care?”

A few minutes passed when Olive Hornby came and slammed the Great Hall’s door open. 

“MYRTLE! BATHROOM!” She shrieked, panicked. It wasn’t clear what she was saying but Headmaster Dippet and a few professors had stood up and walked out. 

“What was that?”

“Dunno,” Hadrian says before gulping down.

* * *

Tom stood at the bottom of the staircase watching as wizards take the body of Myrtle Warren on a stretcher.

“Riddle!” Dumbledore calls for Tom, who whipped his head around to face him. “Come.”

Tom greeted him and went up the stairs to approach him. This annoying old man.

“It is not wise to be wandering around this late hour, Tom. Have I not reminded you to check the time?” Dumbledore reprimands him, his arms crossed.

“Yes, professor. You had told me but...” Tom looks at Dumbledore but avoids eye contact. “I had to see for myself if the rumors were true.”

“Unfortunately they are true, Tom.”

“And the school as well?” He licks his dry lips and puts his arms behind him. “I don’t have a home to go to. They wouldn’t close Hogwarts, would they?”

“I understand, Tom, but... I’m afraid they would and headmaster Dipper might have no choice.”

“Professor, if it all stopped, if the person responsible was caught...” Then Dumbledore narrows his eyes and tried to meet the teen’s eyes.

“Is there something you wish to tell me, Tom?”

“No, professor, nothing at all.” The elder man tilts his head and looks at him suspiciously. Tom gulps down, he had an idea. He couldn’t let Hogwarts close down.

“Very well, them. Run along now.”

“Good night, professor.” Tom walks past the old man and a group of talking wizards but instead of going to the dungeons. He headed off somewhere else. He knew who would be the perfect suspect. 

Tom released his wand from his robes and looks behind him, seeing no one but the torches, he opens the door.

“Let’s get you out of here.” He heard someone say to something in the chest.

“Evening, Hagrid.” The chest closes as a messy looking student looks at him. Tom approaches him cautiously, his wand trained to the other student. “I’m going to have to turn you in. I don’t think you meant it to kill anyone...”

“You can’t. You don’t understand!” Hagrid says, almost pitifully. 

“Myrtle Warren’s parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure the thing that killed their child is killed.” 

“It wasn’t him. Aragog never killed anyone. Never.” He tries to convince Tom. 

“Monsters don’t make good pets, Hagrid. Now stand aside.” 

“No!” 

“Stand aside, Hagrid.” He repeated, almost annoyed.

“No!” Hagrid refused. _This annoying Gryffindor_....

“Cistem Aperio!” Tom shouted and points his wand at the chest. The chest burst opened and a giant spider got out of the chest. It started crawling away but Tom cast: “Arania Exumai!”. However, it unfortunately missed and hit stone. 

“Aragog!” Hagrid yelled for the giant spider and was about to chase after it if only Tom didn’t stop him. 

“I can’t let you go.” Tom trains his wand on him, acting like he’s shaking. “They’ll have your wand for this, Hagrid. You’ll be expelled.”

* * *

After Tom caught the ‘killer’. He received an engraved trophy for the Special Services to the school. 

“I can’t believe that big oaf let a spider kill someone! Muggleborn or not!” Hadrian ranted in the common room. The other purebloods listening to him closely. Tom felt hurt by that. “If someone I knew killed someone with no reason, I will never forgive them.” His heart tightened. Sometimes Tom wonders if Hadrian actually knows that he killed Myrtle (technically it was the basilisk) and was purposely saying it.

“And as for you Tom. Good job catching him!” Hadrian smiles at him. His tightened heart immediately removed the weight and fluttered upon seeing the smile. His smile was always one of the brightest and one of the best looks he has ever seen. And Tom wanted the smile and even sometimes, Hadrian’s affections for himself.

“Tom… meet me near the Forbidden Forest at 7 pm.” Hadrian said sheepishly while Tom was talking to a 1st year Slytherin. 

“Sure, is something the matter?” Tom asks, his eyebrow quirked up. 

“No!” Hadrian yells before facing the ground again. “Sorry… just meet me there all right?” Tom nodded and the younger boy walks away, still looking at the ground. Until Malfoy had him in his arms. Which Tom definitely didn’t twitch too.

“What was that?” Tom shrugs and continued talking to the 1st year Slytherin, who was asking him questions. 

It was rather suspicious that Hadrian would ask him to meet him near the forbidden forest but it wasn’t like Hadrian would actually hurt him. Tom was pretty sure Hadrian _wouldn’t_ even hurt a fly, but this was Hadrian. A boy full of surprises.

“Tom. You came,” Tom turns around to face Hadrian-- a blushing Hadrian. How cute.

“Why wouldn’t I?” 

“It was pretty suspicious, Tom, for me to ask you to meet me near the _Forbidden Forest_.” He retorts and Tom nodded. 

“Hadrian, you wouldn’t even hurt a fly.” Hadrian pouts but smiles. 

“You’re gonna take that back eventually, Tom. But thanks for trusting me.” 

“Why did you ask me to meet you here, Hadrian?” Hadrian gulps down and walks closer to Tom. They stared into each other’s eyes, dark ones against glistening nature green ones. Unspoken affection in them if you look hard enough.

“I don’t know how to say this… but bear with me.” He pauses stuttering, not breaking eye contact with the older boy. 

“It started when you visited me in that Yule night, do you remember? That time when you saw me cry?” Tom nodded and Hadrian continued. “I expected you to make fun of me… since I know you hated me. But the fact that you made me laugh when I was in my weakest point made my heart… flutter?? I don’t know how to describe it. Then… these feelings started appearing, that’s why I kissed you the end of the term. I thought if I do that the feelings would stop bothering me, but no. It enhanced them. It was really annoying, you know. Someone bad as you making me feel that way…. But after a year around you, I finally realize that you aren’t as bad. Creepy, but similar like me… I guess what I’m trying to say is… I love you, Tom.”

‘ _I love you, Tom _’ echoed in his head and his heart skipped a beat.__

__When he stayed silent, Hadrian looked like he was about to cry…_ _

__Not really knowing what to do, he reached out and touched Hadrian’s cheek. Wiping the incoming tears instinctively when they started appearing. Tom was confused, he didn’t hold any mushy Hufflepuff feelings for Hadrian but… clearly, his instincts say otherwise. They were screaming at him to just kneel down and comfort the sobbing boy. What was his feeling in this matter? Should he believe his mind and possibly cause a rift between them? Something Tom didn’t want, Hadrian was the only person he felt some kind of connection to. Or should he believe his heart and gut instinct?_ _

“I-I… this was a mistake... “ He started when the Slytherin prefect stood there silently and he tried to pry Tom’s hand away, but the older boy didn’t move. 

If he had been younger, he would have chosen to listen to his mind and wouldn’t hesitate to break Hadrian Potter’s heart but…

__“‘It could be a mistake… I’m cold and I have a hard time giving sympathy, Hadrian. I don’t let anyone close to me.” Tom says softly and Hadrian’s grip on his hand tightened, furrowing his eyebrows. But not the emotion you’re thinking of, he was confused by what Tom was trying to say._ _

Tom realized it now. Sometimes, it was better to listen to your dumb heart once in a while.

“Wh-What are you trying to say?”

“I like you, Hadrian… you were the only person to not fear me. It was annoying of course… but Merlin, you really are a likable person. What I’m trying to say is… I don’t want to hurt you.” He replied clearly. 

Hadrian’s eyes widened and his grip on him disappeared, his facial expression was filled with bewilderment. His teary eyes looked up at Tom and stared at him. “You… try me…” He said, his tone laced with determination. 

Tom smiled nervously and almost fell to the ground when Hadrian tackled him. 

“I will take the chance.”

“For you, Hadrian,” was the unheard sentence.

* * *

__Lestrange wolf whistled seeing Hadrian and Tom’s hands intertwined with each other._ _

__“I expected this,” Avery said, drinking his butter beer. While everyone in Tom’s gang nodded._ _

__“When’s the wedding?!?!” Walburga Black yelled at them. “I need to know so I can order a dress for you, Hadrian.”_ _

__“I’m a MALE!” Hadrian shrieked in retaliation._ _

__“You’ll look good in a dress, don’t worry.” Malfoy chimed in, smiling at their intertwined hands._ _

__“That’s besides the point!”_ _

__“Avery, what do you mean you expected this?” Tom finally said as they sat, waiting for dinner._ _

__“You two have some weird tension. But not sexual- Merlin forbid, Hadrian and you two are too young.” Tom nodded. The others noticed before they even admitted… wow. They’re both dense._ _

__“So you two are really official now?” Hadrian nodded._ _

__“Oh and Abraxas, Tom told me that he gets jealous whenever I get too close to anyone-”_ _

__“Aka, don’t be too handsy.” Tom interrupted and sent Malfoy a look. “Hadrian is now _mine_. I dare anyone here to touch him and I’ll murder you. Your body won’t be found.”_ _

__And that was true. Hadrian was _his_. His to make smile. He won’t let anyone, or anything hurt him. _ _

__Never._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Dormeo Magicus - literally means “sleep wand”. What it says, it puts a wand to sleep. (Correct spelling of Magicus is Magicum)  
> 2\. Somnus - literally means “sleep”. Puts one to sleep, don’t confuse it with stupefy 
> 
> I like writing the scenes with Lestrange a lot actually. Also I checked when Tom opened the chamber of secrets (and according to the Harry Potter lexicon, he opened it on May 1943.). So I’m aware that I got it wrong. Feelsbadman. Also I was using the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets film as reference for one of the last scenes. Since I really couldn’t be bothered to check the books;;;;. I might reread the books for when Harry (not Hadrian) starts his life. Some of the scenes were really boring in my opinion. I might rewrite them. (But not the whole chapter. God no)  
> Next chapter will probably be posted after part 5 of my “Under The...” series. Emphasis on probably. I might upload the 3rd chapter before it tbh.


	3. To my dearest, Hadrian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of family, lockets, soul binding and.... death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grammar... uh... what happened? Also death... after this chapter, slashy-chapters will be more toned down until the triwizard tournament if all goes according to plan.  
> remember that Hadrian is a pure blood pretty much raised by the Malfoys. Although he isn’t exactly a pure blood supremacist, he still has some... views influenced by the Malfoys. Amidst writing this, I got an idea... but I can’t say anything until the epilogue haha. Kudos to you if you can guess what I’m planning.
> 
> AND I CAN’T GUARANTEE THAT THIS IS “SHIT HIT THE FAN” MOMENT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR BUT I TRIED-
> 
> Edited: 9 July 2019 (I realized that putting the chapter on a spell checker wasn't a completely good idea since it deleted... the 6x spaces between specific paragraphs. Oh well)  
> 2nd Edit: 7 November 2019

Tom looked at a small and peaceful village, fittingly named ‘Little Hangleton’. 6 miles away from the tiny village, you would come across ‘Great Hangleton’. A much bigger town with thousands of residents, unlike its smaller counterpart with a population of only a hundred residents. It was a rather boring village and the only noticeable thing in Little Hangleton was the big mansion on top of a hill with many greenery covering the bottom half of the house. Hadrian was beside him, holding his forearm. Why were they there, you ask?

Hadrian. Or well… Harry (as he wished Tom to call him by) was the reason they were there. 

The younger boy barged in the orphanage one summer morning and dragged him to the train station. He explained that he found where his estranged father and apparently where the disgraced Gaunt family lived. 

How the fuck did he found out? Tom wisely didn’t ask, this was Hadrian after all. His cute but strange boyfriend- _Merlin, that sounded weird_ coming from him.

At first, Tom was uncertain about the fact and didn’t want to go to Little Hangleton. And he knew he could’ve overpowered Hadrian but instead, he decided to humor the smaller boy and went with him. It wouldn’t hurt anyway. Plus... he couldn’t say no to those green eyes.

“Well are you coming or what?” Hadrian looked at him with those brilliant nature green eyes a few meters away from him. Tom hadn’t even realized that the boy had let go of his forearm. 

They stepped in the village and almost immediately, the muggles in the area snapped their necks to look at them. Tourists were never common. Especially not some rich looking kid (Hadrian) and a teenager in the throes of puberty, who looked oddly like a certain handsome rich snob.

“ _Isn’t that Tom Riddle?_ ” One of the elder men in a pub whispered out loud, almost unsure.

“ _Can’t be, looks too young._ ”

“ _His son then? But then who’s the other kid?_ ” Tom didn’t get the chance to confront the whispering men when Hadrian, who seemed too distracted to hear the conversation just now, dragged him somewhere. Somewhere on the outskirts of the small village. It was deathly (yet peaceful) silence between them, neither both of them uttered a word as Hadrian focused on getting somewhere. The only sound was of chirping birds and the crunching of leaves and twigs under their feet. 

Hadrian stopped and let out a satisfied sound. 

“We’re finally here,” Tom looked at where the younger boy was looking at. It took a few moments to notice it, but he saw a small worn down shack, especially dirty with muck and grime, through the thick tangled trunks of trees. Tom raised an eyebrow, what were they doing there?

Hadrian stepped through and Tom followed him without hesitation, couldn’t let the little devil get into danger, could he? (Tom would kill himself if anything happened to Hadrian. The younger boy was, after all, the only person that Tom liked.) Hadrian hesitated slightly but knocked anyway, carefully avoiding the dead snake pinned on the door. They could hear someone struggling to walk and open the door, but when it did. Tom immediately pulled Hadrian behind him, much to the younger boy’s surprise and dismay. A man with long thick hair dirtied with all kinds of things disgusting, it long enough to cover his eyes and nose, stood on the other side. But the most interesting thing on the man was the signet ring on his right ring finger. It wasn’t any ordinary ring, it was the Gaunt family ring! 

“What do you want?” The man asked gruffly, obviously annoyed at them.

“Marvolo Gaunt?” Tom asked, undeterred from the rudeness in the filthy man’s voice.

“No, he’s long dead. I’m Morfin Gaunt, his son. What does a filthy muggle like _you_ want with him?” 

“I’m not a muggle,” Tom spat out coldly all the while glaring at the other man.

“He’s your nephew,” Hadrian chimed in from behind him. And immediately, Morfin Gaunt bared his teeth at him, at least bared with the remaining teeth he had. 

“Merope’s son, a filthy half-blood. You look a lot like that muggle, that one who lives in that mansion up the hill. Riddle, his name was.” The pureblood kept ranting about Merope, his mother, disregarding Tom and Hadrian’s attention. 

Tom slowly turned his head to look at his young lover. “Hadrian- er, Harry, how did you find this place?” 

Hadrian gave him a sharp look at the slip. It was no glare, just a simple chastise. “Malfoys have great connections.” Said boy declared and winked at Tom. Upon hearing the name ‘Malfoy’, Morfin Gaunt stopped talking and eyed Hadrian.

“Malfoy? I don’t remember Malfoys having another son... especially not a son with black hair... and what does a pureblood have to do with my sister’s bastard?” He asked intrigued.

“I’m not a Malfoy—”

“Considering how much they pamper you, you might as well be considered as one.” Tom interrupts and Hadrian playfully hits him on the arm. 

“They don’t pamper me.”

“They do, it’s because of your stupidly _pretty eyes_.” Hadrian blushed and gripped Tom’s sleeve. He had heard the same compliment from others almost a million times before but he had never blushed this much... when Tom realized that Hadrian really valued his compliment, he also blushed, albeit it was rather light-colored.

“Shut up.... do you really mean that?” 

Tom smiled and pets Hadrian’s messy hair, “of course.” Morfin Gaunt raised an eyebrow at this. 

“If you’re not a Malfoy, what are you then? Surely you’re a pureblood.” The filthy man said, ignoring the moment the half-blood Gaunt and pureblood had. Same-sex couples were, of course, a norm in the Wizarding world, unlike the Muggle world.

“I am a pureblood... I’m Hadrian Henry Potter.” His uncle dawned a malicious glint in his eyes and a small smirk. 

“The one who got disowned by his own family?” Morfin let out a mocking laugh. Tom glared at his so-called uncle. “What a disgrace—”

That was the last call, Tom grabbed his yew wand and pointed it near Morfin’s face.

“You wouldn’t there, the trace exists.” Morfin says smugly. Then Hadrian lit up, the devilish grin indicating he got an idea. 

“It’s okay, Tom. It doesn’t affect me anymore.” The green eyes pure blood caresses Tom’s arm, trying to calm the older boy down.

“But-”

“It’s fine,” Hadrian interrupted and finally Tom’s arm fell down to his side, his wand safely tucked somewhere in his pocket. “Plus aren’t you more interested in knowing what happened to your parents? And weren’t you the one hellbent on wanting to know who they were and what happened to them last year?”

That’s right... 

“Tell me, what happened.” Morfin just laughed.

“Why would I tell anything-” His uncle stopped talking when he looked at Tom straight in the eye. Big mistake, really. Tom used legilimency on his uncle, looking through his mind for answers and ignoring the random additional memories. They were useless to him.

Tom violently got out of his uncle’s mind. His mother had used a love potion to fool his father into loving her. They married and his mother took Slytherin’s locket with her to London. Where she would eventually give birth to him. And a few months later, Tom Riddle Sr came back to Little Hangleton and claimed that Merope had forced him into marrying her. He never mentioned. about how Merope had managed to do that, in fear of being thought insane. But Morfin Gaunt, the mind he entered, knew almost everything. 

“Legilimency.... you used legilimency nonverbally and wandlessly!” 

“That... that son of a bitch.” Tom ignored the admiring comment that Hadrian sent towards him, still angry. Hadrian raised an eyebrow while Morfin was still stunned from the legilimency.

“What did you find out?” 

“My mother, she used a love potion to make my father fall in love with her. And came back again after a few months, right before Merope gave birth to me. He left after discovering my mother was a witch, didn’t even think about his own son.” Tom spat out and walked away from the shack, planning to do something... something. He had to do something to his _father_. If he didn’t abandon him and his mother, he wouldn’t have been put into that damning orphanage! 

Tom stopped walking when he realized Hadrian wasn’t following him. He didn’t have time to worry as Hadrian quickly reappeared beside him. What was he doing? 

“What were you doing?” Tom looked at his green-eyed lover curiously.

“Oh, my cloak got stuck in a tree branch.” Said boy says and giggled. “It’s stupid I know.” 

Tom checked if he was lying but didn’t see any signs. He let it go.

Upon getting out of the forest, a man who looked like the older version of Tom approached them. 

“Wow, now I know where you got your good looks from.” Hadrian commented looking at the rather handsome man in front of them up and down. He looked exactly like his boyfriend, but older. Tom let out exasperated sigh and jabs the younger boy’s back gently. “What? I’m telling the truth.” 

The older Tom smiled at that. “You’re my son aren’t you?”

Tom Riddle Sr had invited them to the Riddle Manor. Tom holding Hadrian closely beside him. None of the Muggles noticed, however. Tom’s father was talking to them. About how sorry he was about pretty much abandoning him and his mother all the while Tom was touching his wand. His grandparents were also there, additionally commenting on stuff their son would say.

Then Hadrian poked him on the back. With a wand? 

Tom turned around and Hadrian offered him another wand... it wasn’t his Blackthorn wand. It was Morfin Gaunt’s wand.

“How did you get this?” Tom whispered. 

“You know when my cloak got stuck? His wand fell out of his pocket when he froze from your legilimency.” Hadrian smiled at him. That meant, he knew that Tom wanted revenge then? How?

“I just had a feeling and I’m good at guessing things.” The green-eyed boy answered the unasked question. 

By that logic, did he also know his involvement with Myrtle Warren’s murder? _No, it couldn’t be possible._

“So how is Merope?” Tom Riddle Sr asked breaking the quiet conversation Hadrian and Tom were having. 

“She’s dead and you really don’t care do you?” Tom said coldly. Hadrian was still smiling, which unsettled the Muggles around them. 

Tom stood up and glared at his ‘family’. “You had many chances to find me but you didn’t. Your apologies are quite useless aren’t they?” He held out his uncle’s wand and cast: “Confringo!” 

Before the blast could hit either Hadrian and Tom, the latter grabbed the younger boy in his arms and apparated.

“What do you want?!?!” Morfin Gaunt screeched after seeing Hadrian and Tom at his doorstep again.

“You know how to use the memory altering charm right?”

“You mean the false memory charm? Yes.”

“Same thing,” Hadrian rolled his eyes. And Tom just smiled, feeling the weight on his shoulders lifting. 

“Honestly, I expected you to stop the blasting curse.” Tom said while he corners his uncle. He was definitely glad that his sweet beloved didn’t seem mind how Tom pretty much blasted his family.

“Ehhh, you’re Tom. It was about time that you do it. I would have stopped you from killing them though.” Tom raised an eyebrow, what did that mean? 

“I don’t want you traumatized” The Slytherin heir pointed the wand at Morfin and the last thing he saw before his memory was altered was his nephew petting the younger boy with so much fondness.

* * *

“Tom!” Tom heard and felt the familiar body of a boy collide against him. He flinched at first but found himself smiling fondly and embraced the younger boy protectively in his arms. All the whole ignored the eyes on them.

“Awww....” Walburga Black cooed at them. Then turned to look at her promised one scrutinizingly. “Why don’t you ever wrap me like that in your arms, Orion?” 

When Orion Black stood silent and didn’t respond. She let out a loud huff and backed away from him, pouting.

Tom and Hadrian separated from each other. “You’re oddly affectionate,” he comments teasingly.

“I needed a hug-”

“I hugged you like 1 thousand times earlier!” Malfoy, who managed to hear Hadrian, shouted at them from a distance.

“Shut up Abraxy, you’re not Tom.” Hadrian retorts and stuck his tongue out. “Tom’s my beau, my handsome beau.” 

Hearing that made Tom blush lightly.

“Do you mean that?” He grabs Hadrian’s shoulder, who smiled at him slyly.

“Of course! You’re the hottest guy I’ve ever seen! Have you seen yourself in the mirror, Tom?” The green-eyed teen continues complimenting him and only stopped when Tom’s face was beet red.

“I never thought someone’s face could be that red but the more you know- but seriously. I meant it. More handsome than Abraxas-”

“You’re only saying that cause blonds aren’t your type.”

“Yes, actually. Dark-haired people are my type.”

“Like who? Lestrange?” Malfoy smiled delightfully when the younger boy went silent and started blushing embarrassingly. “What about Theo? Goyle? Crabbe?”

“Stupefy,” surprisingly, it wasn’t Hadrian who sent the stunning spell at Malfoy. It was Tom, who recovered from his blushing moment. And Malfoy nearly got hit if not for Lestrange, who was about to hit him for the comment. “I’m the only one he finds handsome.”

It wasn’t a statement, it was a threat.

Malfoy noticed that Tom was rubbing something with his thumb and shuddered when he realized what it was. The Gaunt ring.

Everyone, including the other students, stood silent.

Hadrian tugs at Tom’s sleeves and the taller was greeted with a gleeful smile before he was dragged to go to a compartment in the train.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief when Tom got out of sight.

Theodore Nott and Saros Lestrange both simultaneously hit Abraxas on the back. Crabbe and Goyle were too afraid to hit the Malfoy heir though.

“Riddle will murder us,” Theo said and glared at Abraxas, tempted to hit him again.

“And there won’t be any evidence for the Ministry to arrest him.” Lestrange added and everyone nodded in agreement. 

“Or worse, our bodies won’t be found.”

* * *

“Lucius is such a pretty name.” Hadrian comments, a Witch Weekly Magazine in his hand. He was reading about ‘Wizards who have these names are likely to be handsome’. “If I had a son, I’d name him Lucius.”

“Why are you reading witch weekly?” Saros approached him and Abraxas, whom Hadrian was using as a pillow. “Where’s Riddle?”

“Prefect duties, left me all alone by my lonesome.” He says, not looking up from the magazine. “Witch Weekly is way more interesting than Daily Prophet sometimes you know.”

“‘Left me all alone by my lonesome.’.. should I be offended?” The blond pureblood repeated what the younger said and looked somewhat offended. “I think I’m losing Hadrian.”

“Hadrian was never yours, to begin with.” Saros chimed in and Abraxas childishly stuck his tongue out. 

“Don’t worry Abraxas, you’re a good pillow. Better than Tom, at least.” The blond retracted his tongue and just rolled his eyes, running his hand through Hadrian’s mess of a hair.

“Also, Tom said he wanted to change his name.”

“Why?”

“He has his dad’s name... and also daddy issues—” The Slytherins who heard this snorted but quickly straightened themselves. “What do you think about Voldemort?”

“Voldemort? Flight of Death? Really?” Saros, who understood French because of his family, gave the green-eyed boy an incredulous look.

“Why not? Plus, his name could be an anagram. Tom Marvolo Riddle could turn into ‘I AM LORD VOLDEMORT’”

“Use your creativity and intelligence for schoolwork, Hadrian.” Tom says, entering the common room with a handful of potions, Draught of the Living Deah & Draught of Peace. _What were those for?_. 

As if reading his mind, Tom answers: “It’s for a first-year student, Hadrian.”

“Riddle, give Hadrian attention. He’s been complaining about being lonely.” 

“I was not!”

“Oh really?” Tom smiles lightly and approached the younger boy. 

“Carry me.”

“Needy brat,”

* * *

It was currently Sunday, 10 in the morning. Hadrian had dragged him out outside of the forbidden forest after breakfast. Which Tom would note to be a quick affair. Tom didn’t know why his ‘beau’ (as Hadrian liked to call himself as) dragged him there. He stayed silent, his back turned away from him. 

“Found it!” He declared loudly. In front of them was a large tree, different types of flowers were growing on the branches alongside the thick green leaves. Which Tom would find weird considering it was autumn, but... magic. There were also names on the dark brown trunk, how peculiar.

“What is it?” Tom found himself asking, he hasn’t seen this tree before. 

“It’s called the tree of romance. When a couple writes their initials on it, apparently their love would continue blooming until it can’t anymore. And they would stay together forever... I know it’s just some _stupid_ saying but it won’t hurt to write down our names right?... If you don’t want to it’s fine...” Hadrian explains, his eyes quickly dimming as he says the final words. And... how in the hell could Tom refuse writing his initials now?

“Let’s write our initials then.” Upon hearing those words, Hadrian’s face quickly lit up and a huge cute smile pulled on his lips. 

They wrote their initials on the dark brown trunk, carefully avoiding writing over the other names.

**TMR x HHP**

As a bonus, Hadrian had drawn a heart around their initials. And Tom couldn’t stop himself, he pulled Hadrian into a kiss filled with affection. The younger boy, who was first caught by surprise, responded eventually. They only pulled away when both of them needed to breathe. Hadrian’s face was completely red.

“And you call me needy.”

For the past weeks, Hadrian had crawled into Tom’s bed as the prefect had given the younger boy a key to his private room. The first time caught the prefect off guard so much, he almost screamed when he saw the luminous green eyes. Hadrian, the little shit, laughed until his sides hurt. Apparently, because Hadrian seemed to be fine now. Headmaster Dippet decided to force Malfoy back to his room. How convenient, and the younger boy admitted that he hated sleeping alone. And why wouldn’t Tom let his pretty little beau in his bed? They were _dating_ after all. 

So when everyone saw that Tom and Hadrian had come from the same direction, everyone burst into a gossip, except Malfoy. Who didn’t bat an eye and immediately understood what happened.

“When you said you hated sleeping alone... did you mean... alone in your bed?” Tom asked the younger boy, who was sipping the morning tea that Lestrange had grabbed for him. Hadrian nodded and peered at him curiously.

“...were you sharing your bed with Malfoy?”

“Quite obvious—”

“Hadrian!” Malfoy yelled, interrupting both of them. “I don’t want to get murdered.”

“I’ll go to your funeral, Malfoy.” Avery said, the tone in his voice disturbingly serious. While the others made a sound of agreement.

“Can anyone tell me what a Patronus charm is?” Their professor, Fortinbras asked the class to start off the day. 

Hadrian raised his hand and professor Fortinbras nodded for him to continue. “The Patronus charm is the most famous and most difficult defensive charm there is. The goal is to produce a guardian that would protect the caster, it could also be used as a messenger. It is also the one thing you can fight off dementors with. Some wizards or witches can cast an incorporeal Patronus, where it doesn’t have a form and will resemble a vapor or smoke. But it’s not as strong as a corporeal Patronus, which has the form of an animal.”

“Correct, 5 points to Slytherin!” The professor proudly said. “Most witches and wizards wouldn’t be able to produce a Patronus in their lifetime! Because of its difficulty, magic schools choose not to teach them. You are free to try, however.”

Unsurprisingly, no one was able to cast a Patronus. Welp except for this one Hufflepuff, who was able to cast a non-corporeal one. 

Hadrian closed his eyes and starts thinking of the best memory he had... _Tom_... “Expecto Patronum!” He didn’t expect anything to happen but his eyes widened in shock as silver smoke coming from his wand starts forming into a large snake. Everyone’s jaw went slack in absolute amazement and astonishment. 

“Tom, guess what!” Hadrian skipped towards the older boy.

“You did something in charms class didn’t you.”

“Yeah— see here. Expecto Patronum!” Upon setting his eyes on the silver snake that came out of Hadrian’s wand, he smiled brightly and pats his beloved’s head proudly.

“Most wizards and witches aren’t able to produce even a non-corporeal one, yet you cast yours in your 4th year.” Hadrian leans on the touch. “You’re a special boy, Harry.”

Hadrian has been staring at Tom for at least 20 minutes now. Like he wanted something. 

“Harry, do you want anything?” The younger boy flinched when Tom _obliterated_ the silence between them. “You’ve been staring at me for the last 20 minutes.”

“Why? Can’t I stare at your handsome face?” Hadrian retorts and the older boy smiled slightly. 

“You can, but I can tell you want something.”

“Um...” Hadrian plays with the hem of his robe. “Teach me legilimency and occlumency.”

* * *

Hadrian was a fast learner, it was clear why he was a prodigy. Although he struggled at first when Tom encouraged him to have his own style of performing legilemency. In the end, he pretty much copied Tom’s style, violent and ruthless with no sense of sympathy. Both of them let each other go in their minds without any occlumency barriers stopping them. It was definitely a risky gesture but nonetheless sweet, they couldn’t betray each other anyway. 

Additionally, since the headmaster and the head of their house, Horace Slughorn, didn’t complain about Hadrian sleeping in the same room as Tom. So he just let his little prodigy move in with him

Speaking of prodigies, when Tom found a notebook of Hadrian’s. He shouldn’t have been surprised when he saw how many jinxes, charms, hexes, and curses the little brat had created. And Hadrian had clearly expected him to find the book because on the very first page, there was a note addressed: ‘To my handsome Tom’. The contents of the note were brief. It basically told him what kind of things will be in the notebook. And ‘asked’ him not to tell anyone about the spells. Because apparently some of the spells will get him expelled and Tom didn’t want Hadrian expelled did he?

Looking through the notebook, the spells ranged from innocent (and rather funny) charms and hexes to dark and deadly curses. Hadrian had a glaringly obvious fascination with the Dark Arts and he definitely had hidden darker side of himself, that Tom should have seen it coming from a mile away since the previous summer.

_Maybe... maybe then he won’t mind the fact that Tom was technically a murderer— no, he can’t reveal anything. There might be a darker side to Hadrian but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have any morals._

A lot of the spells were either scratched out or written over with the words: ‘too similar to an existing spell’. On the side note, other than the spell names and description, there were a lot of small doodles, which Tom would admit were quite cute. He recognizes a lot of them as him and Malfoy. Lestrange, Black, and the others make a few appearances from the 20th page onwards. How long has he been writing?—

Then it struck him, if it was 1st or 2nd year, I would mean Hadrian had been crushing on him a long time ago before the eventual confession, since the drawings of him started at the front page— there was also the possibility that he only added the drawings after they began dating, but honestly? Why would he do that?

There were only a few spells that caught Tom’s attention, _Occulo Incantamentum_ , _the Rotting Curse_ and it’s counter spell and _the Heart Stopping Curse_ and the counter spell.

> ##### OCCULO INCANTAMENTUM
> 
> Nonverbal. Point the tip of your wand on the side of your forehead. It covers up the next spell the caster uses. Useful when trying to try a spell that would surely get me in trouble :D  
> 

> ##### THE ROTTING CURSE
> 
> _ERADICO_
> 
> My version of the Cruciatus curse, but can also be used to rot metals, wood, etc. To use, point the wand at the target.  
>  Slowly rots the target’s skin until they won’t have any skin left, this won’t kill the person, only skinning them alive.  
>  COUNTERSPELL: CONSERVO  
> 

> ##### CONSERVO
> 
> Counter spell for the Rotting Curse. To use, point the wand at target.  
>  Stops the Rotting Curse from rotting the target/object anymore. In case of people, it doesn’t heal the skin.  
> 

> ##### THE HEART STOPPING CURSE
> 
> _COR SUBSISTO_
> 
> My version of killing curse, though it could be stopped. To use, point the wand at the desired target.  
>  Slowly stops the beating rate of the heart until it ceases to beat. Also, the weaker the core of the caster is, the slower the heart stops.  
>  COUNTERSPELL: ACCELERO/SPEED UP CHARM  
> 

> ##### SPEED UP CHARM
> 
> _ACCELERO_
> 
> A counter-charm for the heart-stopping curse. To use point your wand at the desired place. In the heart-stopping case, point the wand to the heart, accelerating the beating of the heart until it’s back to its normal speed. Could also be used in numbers of ways: when writing/running.  
> 

They were certainly interesting... especially the Occulo Incantamentum. Hadrian managed to bypass the trace at 4th year. What else Hadrian would be able to do?

“Eradico!” Tom pointed his wand at a metal he found lying around the school. And as expected, the metal began coloring itself into golden brown. His eyes shone in delight.

“You found my notebook then?” Hadrian squatted beside the older boy. The silver snake Patronus lying on his shoulder lazily. _He must have used the Patronus to find him..._

“Yes,” he pauses and pulled his eyes away from the metal to look at Hadrian. “Fascinating stuff, Hadrian. I’m sure you can do pretty much everything.”

Hadrian blushes and smiles. “Except death... it’s inevitable.” The boy stated sadly and firmly. Tom wanted to argue, but no use. He doubted Hadrian would change his opinion. “You know, Tom. I didn’t want to say anything about this cause I didn’t want to scare you, but one time when I was in Diagon Alley with ex-family. A ‘seer’ grabbed my arm then proceeded to tell me that I was gonna die in a few years and to enjoy my remaining life.” 

That one caught Tom’s attention, it alarmed him, Hadrian dying? He couldn’t let that happen... Hadrian was pretty much his whole world... Hadrian was the reason he wasn’t insane yet. 

Hadrian never feared him, liked him for who he was and never judged him. He was the only person Tom had shown any affection to.

Tom was sure he would fall into despair if death ever took his beloved away.

“It’s a bunch of rubbish, Tom. Don’t worry.” Hadrian rubs his shoulder comfortingly, sensing Tom’s anxiousness. He quickly diverted the subject to something more cheerful, but the thought of Hadrian dying stuck in his head. 

“Prefect Riddle, your boyfriend, Potter, has a Patronus right? Do you know yours?” A 3rd year Slytherin asked him while writing down reports on who misbehaved at dinner. Hadrian was nowhere to be found. He was tempted to run out of the Great Hall and find him, but Malfoy, who sensed his worry, told him that Hadrian felt rather tired and went to his room. That eased Tom a lot.

“No, actually.” Tom answered accordingly. He had never thought about learning Patronuses.

“Awwee too bad. I wanted to know if you two have the same one since you’re in love with each other.” Wait... what? What does that have to do anything?

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know? Corporeal Patronuses changes form when the caster falls in love with somebody.”

When Tom went back to his private quarters, he found an unmoving lump on his bed. He smiles, knowing who it was. 

After changing to his pyjamas, Tom fondly noted that the lump never moved even slightly. 

He slightly pulls down to reveal the sleeping Hadrian, undisturbed. The smile on his face widened as he slipped in under the covers and held the younger boy to his chest. He chuckled silently when Hadrian snuggled closer to him.

“Say, Hadrian.” Said boy turns around while fixing his robes to look at Tom, who was sitting on the bed. “Teach me how to do a Patronus.”

“Harry,” he unceremoniously corrected him but his face nonetheless lit up enthusiastically. “Think of the happiest memory you have in your life.”

* * *

There were many memories to think of, all of them had something to do with Hadrian unsurprisingly. It took him five days to actually cast a Patronus as he struggled with picking a memory. But finally...

He remembered it so vividly... Hadrian’s green eyes glistening amidst the dark sky of the night as he confesses, throwing his pride like nothing. 

“ _I love you, Tom._ ”

“Expecto Patronum!” Both of them yelled and two similar silvery snakes appeared at the tip of their wand. The snakes looked at each other before seemingly rubbing their scales against each other and intertwining themselves with each other affectionately. 

“You did it, Tom!” The older boy stood silent, mesmerized by what the two Patronuses were doing and also speechless.

“I did it...” He croaked out finally.

“Yes, you did.”

“Abraxas! Look at this!” Hadrian yelled towards Malfoy, who whipped his head to look at the younger boy, dragging a very pleased looking Tom Riddle. 

“Oh dear,”

They both summoned their Patronuses and sensing that there was no threat, the two Patronuses ignored everyone and busied themselves with the other again. 

“Holy shit,” Malfoy managed to say, staring at the intertwined snakes. That also caught a bunch of students attention.

“I didn’t know Patronuses could do that...”

* * *

Tom stared at Hadrian, who was currently scowling at the girl in front of Tom. He stopped listening to her since he noticed the look on the younger boy’s face. His face might have been blank, but inside, he was deeply amused. He rarely saw that emotion on his face, as Tom is the one who is generally the more possessive one. The only time he has seen it was when Hadrian had visited him in Wool’s Orphanage. But it wasn’t as ferocious as this one was. 

“So can you accompany me to the Samhain Ball?” She asked with her annoying choice. Tom looked down, prying his eyes away from Hadrian (who never noticed him looking at him). The girl was a 4th year with dyed dark brown hair and uninteresting brown colored eyes, which she usually covered with green contact lenses. The fact that she was unsubtly trying to copy Hadrian was very apparent. He inwardly scoffed at the thought. No one, not even a Black, would be able to copy Hadrian.

“No.” It wasn’t his voice. Instead, it was Hadrian, who finally decided to move. His arms were crossed and was posturing. The girl narrowed her eyes at him and frowned.

“Did I ask you?” She says, gazing at him, her sourness becoming more and more visible. When Hadrian shook his head, she replied. “Then don’t answer.” She looked back at Tom and smiled.

“So-”

“I believe you got your answer.” Tom interrupted. “I’m in a relationship, it is a given that I will take Hadrian. I believe your question was quite… stupid.” He feigned a smile at her before he approached the green-eyed boy and walking away. Leaving the girl to glare at the floor.

“Who was that? She keeps following you, trying to get your attention.” Hadrian asks on the way back to the common room. His face contorted into jealousy.

“Her name is Constance O'Connell. Jealous are you?” Tom asks teasingly, in which he received a smack.

You’d think after countless rejection, the girl would take a hint. But noooo, O’Connell never left him alone. At first, it was amusing when Hadrian would look jealous and annoyed. But after a few times, he was getting annoyed too. The bad part was that he couldn’t do anything about it. He had to keep his charming facade and he was sure the girl was fully aware of that. 

“Why in the name of Merlin can’t she leave you alone?” Hadrian asks, stabbing his food and glaring at the Ravenclaw table. 

“Don’t play with your food.” Malfoy chastised. 

Hadrian simply stuck his tongue out at him. “Like why does she keep obsessing over you? She knows you’re dating me!”

“She seems pretty stupid for a Ravenclaw.” Lestrange chimed in after gulping down his food.

Hadrian drops the fork down and instead grabbed his glass of water. “I want to kill her… but my morals knows it’s wrong. At this point, I’d be willing to hurt her…” Lestrange stopped chewing and looked at Malfoy, who did the same. And that’s when they heard the glass in Hadrian’s hand break into large sharp pieces. Hadrian didn’t react, he looked at his wounded hand with a dull expression in his eyes. This caused a few students to stop what they were doing and looked at them. Tom shot up from his seat and took Hadrian’s wrist. He grabbed his wand and started healing the cuts with ease. Of course before dragging him away to change his wet cloak. 

“What in the name of Merlin was that?” Lestrange and Malfoy asked simultaneously.

After that day, the 4th year girl stopped following him and Hadrian seemed to be in a good mood. He first raised an eyebrow at this as it was very odd but who was he to complain?

Nearly a week passed and a girl was found, Constance O’Connell, near death. She was ironically found by Fleamont Potter in an abandoned part of the castle. Her skin was rotten, her magic core was deliberately drained from her, it was so fatal to the point she almost became a squib and she seemed to have suffered from the cruciatus curse. Whoever did that to her must have really got it out for her. Because of how traumatized and how fearful she was, she never said who did it to her. But everyone knew who did it. It was Hadrian Potter. He was smiling throughout the announcement but nobody had any evidence to blame him. And that made him even smugger. Instead of being fearful of him like most of the students (not all of the Slytherin house, only a few and they were muggle-borns), Tom felt very pleased for some reason.

One night, however, he felt very curious. Curious about how Hadrian did it. So one night, he did just that. Hadrian was laying on the bed, sleeping when Tom got up and slowly cast legilimency on him. His occlumency barriers seemed to recognize him and lets him in. He searched for the memory, hissing out a satisfying hiss when he found it.

* * *

Hadrian stared at Tom’s peaceful sleeping face for a few minutes before deciding he couldn’t sleep. He got up slowly, not wanting to wake up the prefect. The boy grabbed the cloak hanging nearest him (Tom noted that it was actually his judging by the prefect pin) and hung it around himself, fighting off the cold. 

He followed his instinct and found Constance O’Connell in an abandoned potion classroom. Brewing something blue… he identified it as Amortentia if the smell of treacle tart and Tom’s clothes was anything to go by. 

“Amortentia? Really?” The girl let out a gasp and turned around, holding her heart before letting out a breath when she saw who it was.

“Oh, it’s just you.” 

Hadrian casts a non-verbal silencing charm around the room. The girl didn’t seem to notice.

“After I brew this potion, your boyfriend will no longer be yours. He’ll be obsessing over me.” She says smirking. 

“Diffindo!” Hadrian shouted and it barely missed the girl but it did sever the cauldron in half. She growled.

“Did you know how many months it took me to get those ingredients?!?!?” Her smirk disappeared into a frown.

“I don’t know and I don’t particularly care.” He approached. And this time, the girl actually grew anxious as she shakily pulled her wand out as well. 

Hadrian never hurts anyone, at least not willingly, but who said he wouldn’t hurt her?

“Crucio!” She froze on the spot and a blood-curdling scream rang through his eardrums. He made a sound of pleasure. The girl fell on the ground, trying to hold herself but Hadrian stepped on her arm and dragged it away. Pinning it on the ground. 

He ended the curse. But O’Connell wasn’t given a break. Hadrian grabbed her chin forcefully and pointed the tip of his wand at her throat. She screamed and tried helplessly to claw away Hadrian’s arm when she realized the boy was trying to drain the core of her magic. He smiled satisfied when her magic was next to disappearing.

“N-n-no, not my magic….” She stammered out and that caused Hadrian’s smile to turn into a demented one.

“How would you feel being a squib, O’Connell? You’d be a disgrace… if your mother hasn’t disgraced it enough by marrying a muggle.” He didn’t mean this truthfully. It was simply in the head of the moment. And also… this seemed to be effective against her. 

“Eradico…” The white light from his wand hits her and she felt a burning sensation all over her body. Then the pain went for her. Hadrian cackled before standing up. Her screams were music to his ears, giving him the satisfaction he didn’t know he needed.

He knew this was wrong but he couldn’t stop. It was _addicting_ … 

When he was done, blood was all over his cloak and his eyes were wide open. Hadrian sent a Silencio at her body and scourgify himself (specifically the cloak) before leaving, avoiding the ghosts sneakily.

* * *

Tom got out of his mind and Hadrian was still sleeping but leaning towards him. 

He didn’t sleep that night. Not because he was terrified but because his mind was filled with Hadrian… just Hadrian. He seems like the type to leave scratches or marks.

* * *

It was a cold December morning, snow was piling up outside whilst everyone slept peacefully, undisturbed. Well maybe perhaps a certain prefect named Tom Riddle. He should be sleeping since there were really no classes and the Great Hall was always gonna have food, in case students got hungry. But nope, Tom had a built-in alarm clock that would always wake him up every 6 o’clock in the morning without fail. It was irritating but also a blessing, he could watch Hadrian’s sleeping face for hours before breakfast every morning—

Hadrian stirs awake and groggily opens his eyes to see his beau looking at him.

“Tom? What time is it?” The younger boy asks and Tom simply pats him, trying to lull the sleepy boy to sleep again.

“It’s early in the morning, sleep.” Hadrian tried protesting but the motion of the older boy’s hand running through his hair and his sleepiness forced his eyelids shut. Tom smiled and got out of bed reluctantly. He didn’t want Hadrian to wake up to a cold and empty bed but oh well... Tom had something in mind.

* * *

Tom walks through Hogsmeade, trying to find the jewelry store with a specific locket. A few students were there, wandering around and trying to find Yule presents for their friends. Tom himself hasn’t given anyone anything for Yule, he wasn’t planning to and only had Hadrian in mind to give a gift to. He managed to save money to buy the thing he would bet Hadrian would like very much. You can thank the Malfoys for offering to buy him school supplies (and to an extent Hadrian, Tom was sure the younger boy had something to do with it.).

His eyes lit up when he found the jewelry store, Tom grabs a bag of galleons from his robes and enters. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of students there, who were either purchasing the love locket or purchasing a type of jewelry. Diversity wasn’t quite there.

“A love locket for you too, young man?” A woman, whom Tom assumed as someone who works there, asked him. Tom nodded simply. The woman smiled and grabbed two lockets from the bag— well they came prepared— “Your name and the one you want to give the locket the locket to.” She says, pointing the tip of her wand at the lockets.

“Tom M. Riddle and Hadrian H. Potter.” The students snapped their heads to look at him, surprised that the cold prefect, Tom Marvolo Riddle, was buying a love locket! 

The woman silently flicked her wand and his and Hadrian’s name carved themselves on the golden lockets. “What kind of charms do you want on it—”

“I’d like to do the charms myself.” Tom interrupted. 

“Oh? That’s only 12 galleons then.”

* * *

Tom went back to Hogwarts looking smug, the lockets in his robes, tucked in safely. 

“Riddle! Found you!” Avery approached him, looking out of breath. Tom raised an eyebrow. “Hadrian has been sulking about you abandoning him.” 

Hearing that his smile dropped. “Where is he?” He asks.

“Common ro—” Tom didn’t give Avery a chance to finish his sentence before _bolting_ towards the Slytherin common room.

Upon entering the common room, he saw Hadrian being coddled by the female Black. Tom immediately went to his side, alarmed and concerned.

“Hadrian? What happened?” Said boy didn’t respond, just grabbing the older boy and pulling him to him.

“Ehh, he probably got used to waking up to you beside him or you there when he woke up. It’s just a reaction.” Malfoy explained. “It happens a lot when he was with me also.” He added.

Well.... he has to take note of this... Tom can’t let this happen again.

* * *

As per usual, Malfoy and Hadrian had invited him to the Malfoy Manor again. And of course, Tom would go, who was he to refuse? He does have something to give Hadrian at Yule. Even if he didn’t get invited, he knows that they wouldn’t mind if he does go anyway. Tom had only gone there two times but the Malfoys already got used to his presence. And even the guests they would have got used to him. However, they would still sneer at him but he never really cared much. The only opinion he values was Hadrian’s. 

It was 26th of December when Tom got out of the guest bedroom, he was staying in, to seek Hadrian. The Malfoys had a few guests over— actually a lot of them because they were holding an after Yule ball— so he couldn’t go near the living or dining room unless he wanted to deal with pain the arse purebloods. Tom just hoped that Hadrian wasn’t mingling with the purebloods.

As if the gods heard his wish, he heard a familiar voice near him. Tom’s walking speed sped up. There he saw outside was Hadrian and Lestrange, jabbing at each other teasingly. 

“Harry,” he called and both teens whipped their heads towards Tom.

“Tom!” Hadrian enthusiastically greeted him. While Lestrange gave him a simple greeting and a nod.

“Do you need anything?” The younger boy asked as Tom approached them, he didn’t reply. 

“Ooh, are you gonna give Hadrian a Yule gift?” Lestrange teased but went silent when Tom looked at him seriously. “Oh my god... ok, I’m gonna give you two your moment.” He says before quickly departing. Lestrange disappeared from view but Tom and Hadrian knew he was still watching, curiosity might kill the cat someday.

“Was he right!” Tom nods and the younger boy smiles sweetly. “Oh... I don’t have your present yet.”

“It’s fine... here.” 

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!!!” Hadrian yells loudly, his voice full of giddiness upon seeing what Tom was offering him. His blush brightened into crimson when he saw the exact same locket around the older boy’s neck but with his name written on it. It wasn’t big enough to get in the way of anything but still rather noticeable.

“How much did it cost? I heard it was expensive! Also, I never pegged you as the type to wear something like this.” Hadrian was correct, but if it’s for Hadrian...

“It’s fine, it’s with you anyway—” He got a playful jab from the blushing teen.

“Now I feel bad for what I’m gonna give you...” 

“Considering what you have given me for the last two years, does that really matter anymore?”

For Yule and his birthday, Hadrian has given him... an enchanted pendant that would show the status of a specific person: alive, dead, mortal peril and where the person is. 

“... give me a piece of hair.” Tom suddenly asked bluntly, holding the pendant protectively.

“What?” 

“That’s what the pendant is for, isn’t it? 

“But... it’s quite useless, isn’t it—”

“Not if it has something to do with you, Hadrian.” He says and stares into Hadrian’s deep green eyes, who grinned like an idiot, blushed then pulled the taller boy to him and then kissed him. Tom reciprocated.

* * *

Hadrian groaned. He was in Divination Class and he honestly wished he never picked the boring and stale class. He would rather be anywhere... well actually, in Tom’s arms. Cuddling like there was no tomorrow.

_Oh well.._

The 4th year lazily touches the crystal ball in front of him, not expecting to see anything, as the professor went on and on about prophecy and such and such. He wanted Tom...

Curiously, their professor stopped talking. And he realized why something was forming in his oracle. Something bad... the usually white and cloudy view of the crystal ball was overwhelmed by black dots forming the figure of a large dog.

“The grim— the omen of death!” Their professor shrieked and immediately ran up to him, worriedly. Her face pale as a ghost. Seeing how serious she looked, Hadrian quickly took his hand away from the crystal ball, his hands slightly shaking. It couldn’t be... it just wasn’t possible...

The revelation sank in as Hadrian shakes slightly. His hands and feet felt cold.

“We have to tell Headmaster Dippet. A student’s life is in danger!” As their professor ran out to barge into the Headmaster’s office, the students, especially the Slytherins, gave Hadrian worried glances. 

“Someone should probably grab Riddle.” The Slytherin beside him finally said, breaking the tense and uneasy atmosphere. Hadrian was silent, not really knowing what to do or say. The seer... it was just a bunch of bogus right?? He won’t die... would he? He was too young... simply too young. 

Hadrian didn’t even realize he was full shaking when he heard the door slam open and three students ran out to go to where Tom was. 

The three students nervously looked at the door looming over them. It was Alchemy class, advanced and too difficult for normal average A-E students.  
The alchemy professor whipped his head to the door when he heard it creak open.

“What is so important that you would interrupt my class?” The professor asked sternly, giving them the stink eye. The three snakes look at each other, daring the other to say something.

“Errr- is Riddle here... it’s kind of important. It’s about Potter, Hadrian.” Finally, the tallest Slytherin said and hearing Hadrian’s name being uttered, Tom stood up. 

“Excuse me, professor.” He said before turning his back to the class and walking with the younger Slytherins, disregarding the glare the alchemy professor was giving him. His grades be damned, Hadrian is way more important

The students weren’t even surprised when the three students that went out came back with Tom. He is rather infamous for being way too... overprotective over Hadrian. 

Tom’s eyes bulged out when he saw what was on Hadrian’s crystal ball. He knew it... he should have done something about it earlier—

“Hadrian... Harry.” Tom calls for Hadrian softly, who was still stiff, not responding. He shakes the younger boy’s shoulder, clutching and holding him firmly. 

“Tom...” He finally responds. “I’m not going to die am I?”

“I won’t let you.” Tom won’t let him. 

It was a promise.

* * *

Pretty much everyone found out what happened that day. Tom’s gang, plus Walburga Black, had immediately run up to him. All of them looked anxious especially Black, Lestrange and Malfoy. Malfoy looked like he was gonna have a heart attack right there and there, Tom had heard that he had almost fainted from hearing the news, but seeing Hadrian still breathing, relaxed him... slightly. It felt like Malfoy had been the one who got the omen of death. 

Because of that worrisome instance. Tom had been obsessively scouring the Hogwarts library for something— something that would let him protect Hadrian even if he wasn’t beside him! The bags under his eyes grew larger each day, he knew he needed to sleep but the fact that Hadrian didn’t even want to sleep fuelled him. Until eventually... he found a book titled ‘Souls and functions’ written by an unfamiliar author: Sylvester.  
It caught his attention. Not only because he hasn’t seen the name of the author before but also because he was curious why the book was in the Restricted Section. 

Tom quickly picked it up and started reading. The first section of the book was boring, the author explained meticulously how he was fuelled to write the book due to his lover’s death. How much he wished he could turn back time and perform the ritual that would enable both of them to live, without ever needing to make Horcruxes.

>   
>  Immortality, there are other ways to obtain it, mainly through the soul. However, it will take years, and it would be either a waste of a life or a life that could save thousands from permanent death and loss. I would never recommend it, as the chances of it being a waste are very, very much high. But it is better, when comparing to _Horcruxes_. No one will have to suffer... well maybe except you. If you do not know what a Horcrux, I’m afraid you have come to the wrong place. Close the book and return it back where you found it.
> 
> Never mess with the soul, I repeat. Never mess with the soul. It is not worth it.
> 
> By the time I have written this whole book. I’m sure I will be long gone from this physical plane and gone to the astral plane, forever mourning for another’s soul. Life is not worth it for me anymore.
> 
> This book is to honour my dearest. I am very sorry to have become the cause of your death.  
> 

Definitely boring but also very... sorrowful. Would he become like this when— no. Hadrian was never going to die.  
He scanned through the pages. After that first page, it wasn’t so boring. There were a lot of sections in the book that would really interest Tom if he wasn’t so busy trying to find that would benefit Hadrian’s existence. Then eventually... he found what he was looking for.

> #####  SOUL-BINDING 
> 
> _Neither can die while the other is living, and neither can hurt the other._
> 
> Binds two people’s soul together for eternity. Even through death. The ritual I wished I did, this does not make the people immortal.  
>  Not only does it ties two people together, but it also has a blessing, that could also be considered a curse... sharing abilities. For example, if one of the binders has the sight of a seer, the other will also receive the sight. This includes numerous others... including lycanthropy, which is rather unfortunate. 
> 
> The process of binding will take a few months to work. A fair warning... I don’t recommend trying to speed up the process, as there are no ways to do it either way.  
> 

Neither can die while the other is living... Tom smiled. He found it. He just needed to protect Hadrian for a few months and everything will be all right.

The author further explained how to do the ritual. It needed one of the participants to make a Horcrux. Pretty convenient and rather hypocritical of the author, considering how much he seems to despise the making of Horcruxes. Funnily enough, he appeared to actually sense his hypocrisy and so never once called it as a Horcrux, just ‘a substance that holds a person’s soul’. Moreso, it wasn’t as difficult to obtain the other items as it is for a person to figure out how to split their own soul— which was murder—. But this was Tom a Riddle speaking, of course, he’s gonna find the other easier to find.

The only problem he was gonna face was... to convince Harry. Considering how much Harry seem to fear death, it might be easy... who knows though.

Hadrian scrunched his nose, smelling the putrid and rancid smell coming from the potion the older teen placed on a table. Tom had approached him immediately after obtaining all the ingredients needed. At first, the younger boy was really skeptical but what was he gonna lose? 

His sense of taste probably—

“Do I really have to drink that?” 

“Yes.”

Hadrian made a gagging noise and Tom just smiles, despite being very tired. 

“It’s not like you’re the one going to drink it... come on, let’s just get over this.”

The green-eyed boy closed his eyes as the ritual began. Tom’s magic caressed Hadrian’s, who absentmindedly leaned on the pleasant air embracing him. The Slytherin prefect reached out for the boy’s hand, massaging Hadrian’s knuckles before their fingers interlaced.

“Hadrian Henry Potter,” he began, his heart quickening in anticipation. “I, Tom Marvolo Tom, vow to life and death themselves, to deliver you from harm. Should you come in contact with enemies, I shall _remove_ them from your life and shield you away.”

Upon hearing that, Hadrian opened his eyes to look at him with a smile screaming ‘you would kill them, you mean.’.

“I promise to support and protect you until the ends of time.” He added, feeling the invisible red strings of fate tying them together, tying their souls together. 

Hadrian reaches for the older boy’s cheek with his free hand.

“Tom Marvolo Riddle,” The younger boy’s voice wavered nervously. The beating of his heart loud in the older boy’s ears. “I, Hadrian Henry Potter, I vow to share my joy and happiness with you. I promise to never let you feel despair. Should you fall, I will fall and rise again with you. I will treasure our bond for eternity.”

Their magic embraced each other, quite obviously used to being around each other.

“Hadrian,”

“Tom,” 

“I promise to spend my life with you, our affection will never weaken through time. I will share you my soul, my abilities and my blessings...” 

With that, Tom felt his soul splitting for the second time, but as that part escaped from his body, an unusually familiar soul-filled its place. It was Hadrian’s soul, Tom’s remaining soul welcomed it with warm acceptance. And it felt like he was falling in love all over again. 

“Harry, just gulp this down...” The thread holding their soul together wasn’t yet very strong as it was still new, almost a newborn. Drinking the potion will keep it together until the threads become indestructible.

Tom was the first one to drink it, took half and handed it to the younger boy, who hesitantly drank the rest. It tasted what it smelled like... disgusting rotting flesh-

Then before the pureblood could puke, the older boy connected their lips, surprising Hadrian, enough to stop the puke from coming. Hadrian closed his eyes to let Tom take control. 

He forgot that he had gulped down the disgusting potion... that wasn’t so bad... considering he did get snogged for seven minutes straight.

They parted, much to Hadrian’s dismay.

“Now... we wait for months to pass.”

* * *

Alarm bells went off. His guts were churning uncomfortably. Something was gonna go wrong. He needed to find Hadrian quick.

He and Hadrian separated from each other, per the younger boy’s request. Apparently, it was to surprise each other with gifts since the older boy was gonna be a 7th year after the summer. Tom knew it was gonna end badly, in a humorous way, but his instinct was saying otherwise, it was flaring dangerously, he could hear his heart back quickening in his ears, his guts filling with an absolute horrible dread. The dread he felt _once_ , the dread he promised himself not to feel again. There was no doubt that Tom was worried— no he was beyond worried for Hadrian. He didn’t have a reason, which confused him even more. Why was he so worried? 

Tom scanned his surroundings, it was nearing the end of the school term. It was noisy but he was too focused trying to find the younger boy that he didn’t even notice how quiet it was in his ears, the only sound coming from his strained breathing and footsteps. He shouldn’t have let go of Harry, the soul binding hasn’t been completed. He wasn’t safe! It was so stupid of Tom to let Harry from his arms!

Then the scene of a Patronus running up to an adult male, he recognized as an Auror, worried him. It was clear that the butterfly Patronus was relaying a message, a very urgent message, evidence of how dark the Patronus looked. Tom watched as the man’s cheery face morphed into a pale and worried one. 

“Evacuate everyone, immediately. Tell the nearest Aurors to take their position now.” 

Hearing that Tom wasted no time to speed up his pace.... that message... could only mean one thing.

Adrenaline was pumping through him, he was pretty much running now, not caring if the wizards and witches glared at him.  
And then a few minutes later, Aurors appeared and calmly (despite them looking quite panicked) told the people to “go back to your home or Hogwarts.”  
However, Tom ignored and disregarded them. In a matter of seconds, the people realized what was up and immediately ran for their lives. Except for Tom Riddle. 

‘Please be all right, please be all right.’ He repeated in his head, his hands cold and sweating, his heart quickly quickening up.

His heart lurched upon looking the corpse of a random person. No...

There were bodies every step he took, he wasn’t sure if they were just unconscious or dead. A few of them were masked, meaning only one thing, 

Grindelwald fanatics.

“Where are you going?” An auror approached him, it was a woman with a deep thin frown. 

“Leave me be, I need to find someone—” Tom tsked when the woman gave him a worried look.

“I’m not letting you, a student like you should just go back-”

“Stupefy,” Tom interrupted. He had no time for this.

His face brightened when he saw Hadrian, still alive, albeit very terrified. He wasn’t dead... he wasn’t dead...

“Tom!” Hadrian said hopefully, dashing towards the older boy. His face, bright as ever, despite the unconscious bodies around him.

Everything was alright-

“Avada Kedavra!” A Grindelwald follower pointed their wand at Hadrian’s back, the green flash coming out of the wand.

“Hadrian!” Tom yelled terrified, as Hadrian’s facial expression morphed into a pale and deathly one. The facial expression Tom feared the most. Hadrian’s body fell and collided with the ground lifelessly. 

**NonononononoNONONONO**

His mind was blank as he pulled out his own wand, planning to take revenge. The enchanted pendant he had around his neck buzzed, the status of Hadrian was... _dead_. The picture of him was grey. Tom knew how horrible and terrible his face contorted into. Total despair and anger.

The aurors sensing his aura, managed to pin him to the ground and stop him from committing the worse crime of all.

Oh Tom tried fighting, tried to get the auror off him but it was fruitless, his muscles were soft. And without even realizing it, tears started falling down, uncontrollable and unstoppable, it was the first time he cried. And it felt horrible. A part of him was gone.

His whole world— his whole life— no, his whole universe.

Ripped away from him.

It was unfair.

He cried against the ground, his nose grazing against the rough concrete. 

“Oh~ I’m sorry, I killed your little lover.” The fanatic laughed deliriously until he met Tom’s eyes. He stopped and went totally silent before his face contorted into a horrified expression as he felt the very painful pang of the curse he just cast. His body went limp and dropped them.

Wandless and a non-verbal killing curse... this both terrified and shocked the auror above him.

His magic exploded in a fit of both wrath and heartache. The windows and the wood of the stores shattered into tiny pieces. It was enough of a distraction to the aurors to incapacitate most of the Grindelwald fanatics. 

The last thing he heard before his vision went black was spells being cast left and right.

Tom stared blankly at the white ceiling, after he was knocked out by the auror, he was brought to St. Mungo’s. After the explosion of his magic, he had a high risk of losing his magic... but that wasn’t the only reason. The auror was smart enough to figure out who Hadrian was to him and while his magic core was healing, a psychotherapist visited him. Headmaster Dippet, after hearing the news let Tom skip classes until he was fine to function. He had failed to protect Hadrian... failed the only person that truly mattered. What was he supposed to do now? 

The casualties from the Grindelwald fanatic’s raids were as followed: 12 deaths and 67 injured.

Of the deaths, four had been Hogwarts students, 1 Slytherin, _Hadrian_ , 2 Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw. 

When Tom came back to Hogwarts, everyone left him alone, as they did to Malfoy, Lestrange, and Black. On the outside, Tom was completely calm but inside his heart was tearing itself. Malfoy looked worse compared to Lestrange and Black, he looked like he could break down at any moment. Unlike them, Tom transferred his despair and pain into anger to mostly himself. Hadrian’s death affected the whole Slytherin House, even the ones who weren’t close to Hadrian. 

No one won the House Cup to honor four deaths.

Hadrian’s funeral was held in summer, surprisingly the Potters attended. Hadrian was still a part of their family... despite disowning him. The Malfoys clearly didn’t want them there but didn’t say anything as they looked genuinely sorrowful. The only ones who had the guts to actually talk to Tom were the Malfoys, who had opened their home to him. Tom accepted when he was told that a portrait of Hadrian has been made. There he stayed for hours, conversing with Hadrian, letting himself forget about the real world, only to suffer again. He was rather masochistic, wasn’t he?

His 7th year, he came back, cold and cruel. Tom knew what he wanted to do. 

He wanted Hadrian back, no matter how much it takes. He would do anything to have him back in his arms, even if it meant sacrificing thousands of innocent lives. He would defy death even, and violate the laws of nature. Why would he respect something that took his precious away from him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we’ll finally start Harry’s life. And what do you all think of Cedric/Harry? Hopefully none of you mind it. Dw doe, it’ll be brief and Harry will have a reason why he likes Cedric.... and it has something to do with Voldie. I originally didn’t want to add Harry’s (well Hadrian) POV yet, so I was careful not to actually write his thoughts. Is Hadrian’s death considered a major character death? I still won’t tag this work with Major Character Death unless someone told me otherwise, just Character Death.  
> And... someone’s about to get hit by those curses lol  
> Edit 7 November 19: As of writing this. I don't think there would be any Cedric/Harry scenes. But just keep an open mind I guess. 
> 
> Additional note: I don’t think I’ll update until I have the entire first-second year planned out, but I really don’t trust myself— I can’t promise that the first-second year will be planned out when the next chapter gets posted.
> 
> If anyone was confused about why I change from Hadrian and Harry constantly. It's more of a stylistic choice. I'm conveying that this HARRY is not the Harry we'll be following. It is Hadrian. His previous life.  
> I might change it to Harry anyway if someone complains enough.


	4. Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of Reincarnations, Potters and Dursleys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the comments in the previous chapters WERE SO SWEET, OH MY GOD. I feel all soft inside- Tags updated. Not fully tagging angst. I want to clarify the soul binding. It’s essentially immortality. But there are loopholes, the only way for the two participants to die is for them to die together. If one of the participant died before the soul binding process is completed, that person will still die. In Harry’s/Hadrian’s case, the soul binding process finished when he was hit by the killing curse. Hence the reincarnation.  
> If they die together, there’s a chance they will reincarnate... ;))
> 
> Also hi fid. Don’t change your judgement of me for writing this story and I trust you not to leak it.
> 
> Edit! I rewrote this the day after I uploaded it since one of the comments inspired me. Thanks Yaoihamkitty for the ideas :) (I only rewrote the ones I pretty much copy and pasted off Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first parts are completely written by me and I don’t want to rewrite that hell) and I replaced the snake scene a different one... also replaced how Harry took care of his Hogwarts letters. You could tell that you could make me change chapters by just telling me how shitty this is. Jk, it was just bothering me.
> 
> Edit: Soft Edit 7 November 2019, I might properly edit it some day.

“Is he alive?”

“Of course not, he’s dead.” A deeper voice retorted and the sound of a fist hitting silk could be heard.

“...of course.. of course, why did I even ask that- I MEAN IS HIS SOUL ALIVE??” An annoyed scream tore through Hadrian’s ear drums and he jolted awake. “Life, I’m serious—” Then the owner of the scream earlier turned their eyes on him. Hadrian shuddered and unwillingly stared into the gleaming and malicious looking crimson coloured eyes. To top that off, their long dark red (not the pleasant ginger/copper coloured hair but blood red) hair cascading down their body, didn’t help either, it simply intensified their demonic yet enthralling appearance.  
“Oh you’re awake!” 

Childishly hopping towards him, the crimson eyed man (?????) smiled sweetly at him. It didn’t do anything but make Hadrian shift in uneasiness. “Hi, my name is Death. And that pokerfaced being is Life.” The being apparently called ‘Death’ pointed at the taller being clad in white and gold. Similarly to Death, they had long white hair tied in a ponytail and vividly glowing golden eyes, boring into his very soul. Unlike the being in front of him, they had a pleasant and ardour aura—

“Where the hell am I?” He blurted out, genuinely confused. The last thing Hadrian remembered was looking at Tom, whose face turned from relief to a horrified one before something hits him on the back and his vision became black...

“Purgatory,” he froze after hearing that... he... the thing that hit him was a killing curse... _Tom_ , was the first thought he had. What will happen to him? 

‘ _Tom is a strong guy... he could handle my death._ ’ He tries reassuring himself but he knew deep down that Tom wasn’t going to be completely alright but he had to believe... He never wanted this to happen, NEITHER of them wanted this to happen, he never wanted to leave Tom. On the contrary, he wanted to stay with him forever... he didn’t want to die so early- so young.

“Indeed,” they added sternly as if reading his mind, maybe they did actually. “You’re supposed to be dead, your soul is supposed to be getting judged right now. Wether you deserved to rest peacefully in the astral plane or forever suffer and roam the physical plane. But yet, here you are, in front of Life and Death themselves.” 

Hadrian was stunned. What was he supposed to say???

But the same question swirled around his mind... why was he there if his soul was supposed to be judged? It couldn’t be the soul-bind, the process failed for he died before it could be completed. 

“That annoying human, Tom Riddle, quite ambitious and clever. And that damned Sylvester for writing that book. Now we have to break rules again.” Life sneered and scowled at no one in particular.

Did that mean.... the soul-binding worked? But how? He still died, didn’t he?

“Say, Hadrian. Do you want to meet your lover boy again?”

* * *

Hadrian opened his eyes and saw the clear white ceiling. He closed his eyes, not wanting to go blind the second he got out of someone’s womb. _He had someone to meet again after all._

Death and Life had told him that he was to reincarnate into a boy named ‘Harry Potter’ (a legitimate nickname for him, it wouldn’t be hard to get used to the name), apparently Fleamont’s grandson and was destined to die— yes. Hadrian had no idea why they decided to reincarnate him into someone fate will decide to kill off later. But he couldn’t do anything about it. They had thrown him into the pit of cycle of life before he could even say anything. At least he would meet Tom right away... but he still couldn’t help but feel bad, considering once he convinces Tom who he is, he would leave him again— wait, didn’t the soul bind work? Something wasn’t making sense and it’s confusing the hell out of him.

 

 

Harry’s parents (or well.. his ‘new’ parents) were James Potter and Lily Evans Potter, a mud- Muggle-Born witch, a fact Hadrian sneered at. The Potter Family would lower themselves into marrying magical folk of muggle descent? (Honestly, why did he expect it? The Potters were a light family.) This was the reason why pure-bloods were growing meagre in size every year, it wouldn’t take long before half-bloods and muggle-borns would overtake them- don’t get him wrong. He doesn’t agree with the extermination of all muggles (Merlin forbid, he might be a little bit unhinged, but he still had morales!). But could you really blame him for disliking muggle-borns? He had grown up in a pure blood supremacist household, aka the Malfoy family. Although he wasn’t exactly a pure blood elitist, some of his opinion was influenced by them. The Malfoy Family were perhaps (perhaps because the Lestrange family had also apparently wanted to take him, courtesy of Saros) the only family to have had actually willingly (and not to mention, eager) to take him in after his disownment. He wasn’t blood adopted, the Malfoys had asked him about it but in some twisted way, he still wanted to keep the name ‘Potter’. Possibly because he wanted to show future Potter spawns that not every Potter member is a Gryffindor. Who knows really. He should but honestly? He wasn’t sure himself. But even after that, they had added him to the Malfoy family tapestry, it was a simple gesture... but a rather sweet one. (Hadrian- or shall we say Harry now? Had a sneaking feeling that Abraxas might have added Tom beside his name.)

Speaking of disownment, don’t even get him started with his own flesh and blood. Despite having the name ‘Potter’, he doesn’t even consider them as a ‘family’. His parents had excluded him from everything ever since he had expressed interest in the Dark Arts (why were they even considered inherently bad? Some of the ‘dark’ spells were useful and not harmful.). The only blood relative that even showed him compassion was his uncle, Charlus Potter. It might have been because of his wife, Dorea Potter (née Black), that he didn’t become a narrow minded light fool. 

He was getting off track (having a rant about muggles and the Potters could really get him into a tangent)— other than that. Lily was a very sweet woman, coddling him at every chance she got. Harry could sense how strong she was from her raw aura. But that didn’t mean anything if her core wasn’t fully trained, who knows really. She never really brought him with her.  
Funnily enough, she had emerald green eyes. And despite him also having green eyes. They didn’t have matching ones but did that really affect anything? No, not really, Lily noticed but ignored it. His green eyes also caused a funny instance. The Potters had come across the Malfoys... and Abraxas. Harry had been so surprised and overjoyed at seeing his ‘brother’, that he had tried to call for him. But since he was a baby he just ended up babbling (more like butchering) Abraxas’ name and reaching out for him. Also....

_”Abwaas!” He says out loud and everyone literally froze upon hearing this. Oh wait, did he mention that he hasn’t spoken a word yet?_

_“Oh my! That was his first word!” Lily looked extremely ecstatic, not even getting bothered by the fact his first word was another man’s name. She started cuddling up to him as Abraxas turned from being uninterested into being surprised, flabbergasted. And it definitely startled him when he saw those oh so familiar green eyes he so adored._

_“Oh! Congratulations!” A pretty blond woman (presumably a Black) said, congratulating them. The smile on her genuine. Not minding the fact (again) that his first word was his father-in-law’s name. She started clapping and cooing at Harry, her son still in her hand._

_“Father, are you alright?” Lucius asked his father worriedly, noticing how rigid his father was. When he first found out about his name and found out that he was Abraxas’ son, he had almost peed himself laughing. Abraxas... what a dork._

_“Of course, just startled.” Abraxas drawled out, staring into Harry’s oddly familiar green eyes._

It was a good memory.

His father, James Potter, was a picture perfect Potter and looked a lot like Fleamont— except, strangely, you could see a lot of him (Hadrian) in the man. He shouldn’t be however surprised. He and Fleamont had looked a like each other ever since his birth, until of course he got disowned, where his untidy hair was kept in check by Abraxas (and after 2nd year, Walburga). 

However, that was the only similarities he had to him. James was a common Gryffindor, athletic and boisterous. Always boasting how Harry would become a Gryffindor once he get his sorted by the old Sorting Hat, oh how he couldn’t be anymore wrong with that. He was sure the old hat would never place in the Lion’s den. It would be really entertaining to see his face since he looked so certain. But the question is... would he live long enough to attend Hogwarts? (He was still confused about that part.)

In Harry’s free time, he had played around and crawled to the garden a lot. Often meeting snakes and he quickly figured out he could speak Parseltongue (thanks a lot Tom). So the snakes would often smile, somehow, freely talk with him and let him touch their scales. He had never grabbed one and went home with it, as he was sure he would freak out the Potters. Thankfully the snakes didn’t take offence and stayed at the same place he left them whenever he would go back- that was one of the curious things Harry wondered. Perhaps they were just so curious that there was a human who talks the snakes’ language to the point they would patiently wait for him to return. Eventually, they finally noticed their baby, (how did they not notice their _baby_ disappearing you might ask. Who knows) Harry, disappearing. Lily went on a panicked run around their backyard until she found him, playing with five snakes, two of the snakes coiled around him with seemingly no intention to do him harm, laughing. Thank fuck, she didn’t catch him talking with them, now that would disastrous. 

But other than that, his life was bland. And there was no sign that he was in danger... of course that was until his birthday as a two year old child. Where James looked panicked when they came home. Lily looked concerned and immediately went to his side, where he whispered to her about what Dumbledore head told him. Harry couldn’t clearly hear what they had said to each other (damn his baby ears) but he could only guess that it was something bad as Lily looked at him, filled with dread and worry. 

The very next day, Harry woke up in Lily’s arms and when he looked up, he could see the panic and concern in her eyes. What was happening?

* * *

A few months later, he finally understood what was happening. They were in hiding from the Dark Lord, _Voldemort_. It took him a few minutes to realise why the name was so familiar. It was the name he had suggested Tom to change his name to. Was this seriously what Death and Life meant when they said he would meet him early? How sadistic were they?????? (Considering they were essentially... the personification of life and death, he SHOULD HAVE REALLY SEEN THAT COMING. He kind of expected something it from Death but not from Life... Life was supposed to be nice and giving. But guess not, Life is an asshole that doesn’t give a shit and let Death do anything they wanted—now that he thinks about it. It was pretty accurate actually.)

 

 

Meanwhile somewhere unreachable, two personified beings looked down at earth with the watcher ball (the watcher ball is essentially what it’s called. It lets the owner see the going ons in the physical plane within the clear globe. It was a gift from Fate itself). “Oh look he’s insulting us!” Death said, cackling evilly. “He called you an asshole!”

“I am an asshole.”

“No you’re not. We don’t have assholes.”

“Life is an asshole, have you ever heard of that before?”

“Yeah but they don’t mean you. You’re sweet.. sometimes. Also bets on if we’re able to use their forms?”

“No bets, cause we will be able to anyway. Fate said so. I’m gonna use Tom Riddle’s form.”

“Awwww, of course. It’s important to identify who’s the dom.”

“Finally, you realise your position.”

 

 

“Harry, say hi to your godfather, Sirius Black or you could call him Padfoot.” James introduced them to each other. Sirius Black was a tall and handsome man, with medium length hair ending just above his shoulders. Of course, since he was a Black, his aristocratic attributes were quite strong. He reminded him of Orion with his lustrous black hair and Walburga with his silky smooth light skin. 

“Padfoot!” Harry says joyfully. Why wouldn’t he be friendly towards someone who could probably be the son of his good friend, Walburga?

Sirius cooed at him from his crib. 

“He has green eyes... don’t you find it odd that it doesn’t resemble Lily’s?” Sirius asks curiously, looking at Harry.

“Oh, that’s one thing we found odd about him. But my father once told me about his disowned brother who had nature green eyes.” James answered, not really bothered by that fact. “I’m guessing that it has something to do with that.”

“Odd... could he have been called Hadrian Potter?” Padfoot asked curiously and this caught James attention.

“Yes, how do you know?” The older Potter raised an eyebrow while Sirius shook some baby toys to amuse the baby, Harry,

“My mother- well, shall I call her Walburga now? She drilled into me how Gryffindors are shitty people when I was sorted into Gryffindor and one example was Hadrian Potter’s disownment. Told me how they disowned him, without even considering what would happen to him, after being sorted into Slytherin.” He said with a sneer, knowing his mother’s obvious hypocrisy.

The news surprised Harry, no Blacks have been sorted into Gryffindor, always just Slytherin... If Walburga used his disownment as an example for degrading the Gryffindors and disowned Sirius Black for being sorted into Gryffindor, she was no better than his narrow minded parents, the hypocrisy she held! She had disowned someone perfectly capable! For what? For being a Gryffindor? For being a muggle sympathiser? He was sure their oh so perfect pure-blood bloodline wouldn’t be threatened... much. And plus, a muggle blood threatening their line could be prevented in number of ways.

“Prongslet, you’ve been quiet. Is your dear old godfather boring you?” Did he seriously got so lost in his thoughts to the point that he forgot Sirius and James were there? Merlin... he should really pay more attention.

* * *

It was the 31st of October, his guts were churning and he felt a sense of dread. That was never a good sign and he wasn’t the only one feeling it. James and Lily Potter were both on guard, flinching everytime they would hear a sound that was out of place.

But still Harry hadn’t acted weird and did what babies normally do, despite his instincts pretty much yelling at him that they were in danger. He didn’t want to alarm Lily and James. If Fate already decided what was gonna happen, what could he honestly do? Plus his vocal cords hasn’t exactly grown fully yet. Whenever he would try to form long sentences, it would always start to become incoherent towards the end. It infuriated him when he couldn’t pronounce most words without it sounding unintelligible. And so forth, even if he started talking and warn Lily and James, he doubt they would be able to understand what he was saying.

Thus, he waited til the day ended. His nerves started calming down and it seemed the same for the Potters when it came back, much worse. 

It was nine at night when the an oddly familiar magic, yet so foreign and crepuscular, intruded their home.

“Lily! Take Harry and run! I’ll hold him off!” Harry jolted awake when the panicked sharp voice of James entered his ears. His eardrums rang in his ears due to the high pitch shriek, he doesn’t even realise that Lily had already taken him from his crib to her arms.

“Go!” The Potter patriarch shouted, even more panicked. Lily gave her husband a worried glance before running off. Harry could feel her guilt leaking out of her. 

“ _Fool- Avada Kedavra!_ ” He immediately went silent upon hearing that voice... the voice belonging to his dearest, Tom. Death and Life were both sadistic... he hated them both.

They heard James’ lifeless drop to the ground with a heavy thump before Lily ran up to her son’s room and swung the door close behind her. She held Harry to her chest and sobbed on his shoulder. Her fear, especially for her only two year old son, was through the roof. Her sobbing heightened in pitch when the door broke into pieces with a spell. The man on the door was someone Harry recognised very well, someone _Hadrian_ was very familiar with. It was Tom Riddle, slightly older but almost all the difference were all faint. Despite being over 50 years old, he was looked very young, he looked like he was in his 20’s and still very much handsome. But... the most noticeable difference was his deadly red eyes. His wand was trained on Lily.

“Please- please... don’t hurt my Harry-” She was interrupted by Tom uttering the killing curse, ignoring her pitiful pleading.

Lily stumbled as the lethal curse hits her back and she drops down lifelessly. Her soul escaping it’s mortal body to float to the astral plane, joining it’s counterpart.  
Harry crawls away from her arms, not wanting to get crushed by her heavy corpse. Tom— or shall we say Voldemort? Turned his head to him and faltered upon making eye contact. No doubt recognising his green eyes. They stared at each other for a moment before the older man raised his wand and pointed it at him, albeit he looked very hesitant. 

“Curse you. Curse you, Harry Potter. Why do you have _his_ eyes?” Harry was silent. Tom was clearly hurting as he grips his wand to steady himself. 

“Tom...” he blurted out, his tone soft and worried. It was the tone he used to comfort Tom when he was still Hadrian— but instead of easing Tom, he went stiff, his face was a mixture of bewilderment and anger.

“Don’t you dare... Avada Kedavra!” Harry watches as the green light appeared from the yew wand, it approached him but instead of a painless death... he felt something painful hit him in the forehead before heading towards to it’s caster. He was bleeding and before he knew it, he fell unconscious from the pain caused by the fresh cut. 

What the fuck?

 

 

“Welp. Deserved it for attacking someone essentially his soulmate.” Death commented idly, lounging on a comfortable couch (?) and the watcher ball on their lap, watching the scene that just occurred with interest. 

It was a busy day in the Purgatory (thanks to a civil war that just transpired), for that Life and Death were both assigned to look after the souls, to make sure they went to the place they were meant to go. Although it was just Life doing anything as Death was too busy observing ‘Harry Potter’. 

“I don’t get why you’re so interested in watching them. It’s not as if we don’t know what’s gonna happen, Fate told us what was to come.” Life says, not looking at their counterpart and directed souls to their respective places.

Life and Death donned a cloak in favour of human appearances. Increasing their already intimidating aura, pretty much every soul tried their best to avoid them. (A good thing according to Death, who didn’t like humans much) You could assume that they have actually appearances underneath the cloak but in reality, there isn’t actually anything underneath it. Just floating light and dark orbs.

“Can’t help it. I just felt the need to watch over them... but right now, I’m quite satisfied. I’ll leave them be.”

“Don’t interfere with anything, Death.”

* * *

Harry woke up to the roaring of a awakening motorcycle, his forehead was hurting. Was it a dream? No it couldn’t be, it felt too real to be one… Tom did really want to kill him. Normally that would cause a rift between relationships considering HE DID TRY TO KILL HIM, but hey, it wasn’t like he knew who he was right? He was under a different name, different family tree (slightly), and different history. At first, he didn’t even entertain the fact that the Dark Lord and his Tom were the same person. If Tom wanted to take over the Wizarding world, he was smart, manipulative and cunning enough to realise that there were MANY ways to overtake the Wizarding world without anyone realising until it was too late. He just convinced himself that it was just coincidence that Lord Voldemort (he didn’t get why people was scared of uttering the scary ass dark lord’s name, it was just a name after all. It’s not like they would die instantaneously after saying the name) used the name he, as Hadrian, suggested. Who knows, the Dark Lord could have been one of the Slytherins that was overhearing his conversation with Saros and Abraxas. But after his appearance in Godric’s Hollow, Harry was forced to accept that they were the same person. Tom would kill anyone, even _innocent_ babies. It was disappointing of him, but what could you do if you’re very much mad? 

Oh well… Harry would do his best on helping Tom regain his sanity. 

He stayed quiet, feigning sleep but his eyes were slightly open, not open enough that someone would notice, but open enough that Harry could see. He was being held by an enormous man with a long shaggy black hair and beard, he looked like he didn’t have access to a shower. 

“Well, should be going now- don’t want to keep Dumbledore waiting.” Came the rough voice of the giant of a man.

“Goodbye, Hagrid… Prongslet.” Hearing the nickname, Harry perked up. Sirius? And Hagrid… why did the name sounded so familiar? Could he have been a Slytherin? No… couldn’t be. 

 

 

Harry kept his eyes closed, feeling the cold night air of Bristol. He cracked an eye open when he felt the motorcycle touch the ground. The man holding him didn’t seem to notice that he was awake the whole trip. Wow.

“Hagrid,” Harry looked at where the voice came from. It came from a tall elderly man with long silver hair and beard… the question of who was he was immediately answered when he saw those twinkling blue eyes. Albus Dumbledore, no questions asked, only he would posess those haunting, yet bright, eyes. “At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?” He asks curiously, no hidden suspicion. He must really trust Hagrid.

“Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,” said the enormous man, carefully getting off the motorcycle since a baby was in his hand. “Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I’ve got him, sir.”

“No problems, I hope?”

“No, sir-- house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin’ around. He was asleep when I got to him.”

Dumbledore and another elderly woman (albeit younger than Dumbledore), Harry just noticed, approached them and bend forward over them. Harry immediately shut his eyes. He knew they would notice him, awake, they were so close. Just a few centimetres apart. Harry tried not to flinch as the woman gently brushed his fringe away to reveal the scar on his forehead. The pain wasn’t as unbearable but it still stinged.

“Is That where You-Know-Who—?” the woman trailed off, her voice anxious.

“Yes, he’ll have that scar forever.” Dumbledoe confirmed, unfazed.

“Couldn’t you do something about it, Dumbledore?”

“I can’t. Well-- give him here, Hagrid-- we’d better get this over with.” Dumbledore took Harry in his arms but before he could walk away, the giant stopped him.

“Could I-- could I say goodbye to him, sir?”Asked him, and at Dumbledore’s nod. He bent his shaggy head over Harry and gave him a kiss, Harry tried his best not to shrink away but was unsuccesful. Thankfully though, the giant had howled sadly, not giving the two wizards a chance to notice. 

“Shhh!” Reprimanded the woman, “you’ll wake the Muggles!” What? Muggles? Were they going to drop him off to Muggles?!?! HE’S A PURE BLOOD (at least used to, but he was raised by one of the wealthiest pure blood family, the Malfoys. He wouldn’t fit in with these Muggles!)  
He knew Lily and James were dead and he needed a guardian-- but he had Sirius didn’t he? Wasn’t he his godfather?!?! Why were they going to give him away to Muggles when his godfather was perfectly capable of taking him in? Honestly, these shouldn’t stress him out and he shouldn’t have these questions, HE WAS A BABY FOR MERLIN’S SAKE! 

“S-s-sorry,” the giant sobbed, trying to muffle his sobbing by taking out a large handkerchief from his pocket and burying his face in it. “But I c-can’t stand it-- Lily an’ James dead— an’ poor little Harry all alone”

 

“It’s all very sad, but calm yourself, Hagrid, or we’ll be found,” the woman whispered as she touched his shoulder. Harry wasn’t sure if the woman did it because of sympathy or just for... comfort, with no real emotion behind it. Dumbledore turned around, breaking Harry’s contact on the two others. The elderly man walked to the front door. He produced a basket out of thin air and laid Harry gently on it, taking out a letter from inside his cloak, he tucked it inside Harry’s blankets. He then walked away from the ‘sleeping’ baby and went back to the other two. Although he couldn’t hear a sound from them, Harry could feel their eyes on him for a full minute before he could hear sniffing from the woman and the giant. 

“Well, that’s that. We’ve go no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebration.” He hears Dumbledore break the silence. Considering how seemingly far they were, it was impressive how clear he could hear them.

“Yeah,” the giant began, his voice hoarse from sobbing. “I’ll be takin’ Sirius his bike back. G’night, Professor McGonagall-- Professor Dumbledore, sir.” He added before the sound of a motorcycle’s engine roared back to life. The sound became fainter by every second until it could be heard no more.

Then the light from the lamp posts came back, Harry let out a heavy sigh (as much of a sigh as a baby could do) and stared at the door. 

What the fuck is gonna happen now?

* * *

“Vernon!!!” A high pitch shriek tore through the peaceful morning air and awoke Harry without so much as a hello. Harry sneered at the thin woman at the doorstep, she had blond hair and pale eyes, she also had an ubsurdly long neck. She was the exact opposite of Lily, who was beautiful and elegant, yet he could see the similarities between them.

“What is it Petunia-- who left that there?!?!” A big, beefy (more like fat) man with a large purple face joined the thin woman and glared at Harry upon looking at him. He had chunky, dark hair, a wiry black moustache with hardly any neck and small, unpleasant blue eyes. Immediately, Harry didn’t like them.

“I-it’s the freaks.” She stuttered out, picking up the letter sticking out of Harry’s blankets.

“I won’t let him in our home-”

“We have to,” she said, glaring at the letter on her hand. “They won’t let us give him away and our little Dudders will be protected.”

Ugh,

He already knew his life would be hell. He’d rather be in an orphanage than this undesirable and obnoxious Muggle family. (Who equally didn’t want him)

* * *

Needless to say, he was right that his life would be hell. The Dursleys were horrible Muggles (and the fact that they were even remotely related to Lily was ridiculous). The time when he was able to walk (no thanks to the god awful Muggles), Petunia had forced him to cook for them and would punish him whenever he would mess up. This included locking him in the cupboard under the stairs, which he calls bedroom, and left him to starve (which ended up with him malnourished), not to mention the injuries he got from his cousin ‘playfully’ hitting him. Honestly, house-elves were better treated. 

She and Vernon never even call him by his first name. Calling him ‘freak’ when they were alone and calling him ‘boy’ whenever referring to him in public. What was Dumbledore thinking when he decided to dump a magical child to these kind of Muggles? (Why would he even question it? It was Dumbledore, an old foolish coot, and was the reason why most of pure bloods’ tradition disappeared and was replaced with Muggle traditions.)

And don’t even get him started when he ‘accidentally’ uses magic. The punishments were always locking him up in the cupboard for months on end, but they were worse compared to when he would make a mistake. They would never let him out, only giving a piece of bread and water once every three days. And when he was let out and he would almost go blind when he sees the light for the first time in months-  
Oh Harry loathed them. Was this what Tom felt in the orphanage? Because if so, he could understand why he hated Muggles so much and became a Dark Lord-- (Now, Harry doesn’t actually condone BECOMING a Dark Lord because Muggles decided to be assholes-- humans are selfish, it’s literally in their veins. No matter how kind someone is, there is always that egotistical side of them. He was just angry when he was thinking this, could you blame him? His emotions could spiral out of control too.)

Every Yule, they would give Harry ‘gifts’. Emphasis on gifts, as they weren’t exactly gifts. He would receive old and worn out things the Dursleys didn’t use anymore (for example, a pair Vernon’s old socks and Marjorie’s (Vernon’s fat sister) torn up pants). The best thing he got from them was a pair of round rimmed glasses that often breaks because of Dudley, Harry had to ‘fix’ it using a tape. Was ‘fix’ the right for it? Nope.

They would also sometimes mock Harry’s parents, telling him how they did: a car crash. A fake cover up, couldn’t they be more creative?

The examples of Harry using magic was regrowing his hair back when Petunia would cut it so short, that it was embarrasing, another time was when Petunia had been trying to force him into a nasty old sweater of Dudley’s, which were brown with orange puff balls), every time she would try to force him to pull it over his head, the sweater shrunk until it could only fit a hand puppet (thank fuck, Petunia thought that it was because of the wash) and he also uses it to help with chores (of course whenever the Dursleys weren’t there to watch it happen), which made his life a lot easier (not really, it just helped a lot). But other than that, he didn’t even attempt to do anything else. He might have been a prodigy, but that didn’t exactly mean he was a badass motherfucker (excuse his language, please) who could do every wandless magic-- no, of course not. Wandless magic wasn’t taught to students until 5th year, and guess what happened, he died, a year behind becoming a 5th year. The only wandless magic he could do was simple magic, nothing spectacular (but he’d kill to be able to use cruciatus curse without a wand-- he REALLY want to use it on the Dursleys.). 

Also, whenever the Dursleys would take him outside to go somewhere, (that only happens when Arabella Figg, whom he found out to be a squib-- was unable to take him. Arabella was his ‘babysitter’. She was an old woman with grey fly away hair, usually wearing a hairnet and tartan carpet slippers.) some wizards/witches would come to greet him. And looking at the Dursleys’ reaction to this was always amusing.

 

 

“Up! Get up! Now!”

Harry woke up, groaning. This was always how Petunia would wake him up, screeching like a banshee.

Here comes another horrible day…

“Up!” She screeched again and slapped the door to the cupboard when he didn’t seem to react. He heard her footsteps going to the kitchn and then the sound of a frying pan being put above the heating stove.

“Are you up yet?” She screeched again, no doubt waking Dudley up too.

“No,” he replied blandly.

“I know you’re awake! Get up and watch over the food, and don’t you dare even burn it. I don’t want you to ruin my little Dudder’s birthday.” Harry groaned again, frustated, Spoiled kid who had nothing good about himself--

“What did you say?” His aunt snapped, hearing the very obvious groan.

“Nothing, nothing at all…” He didn’t want to deal with this the first thing in the morning.

It was his stupid pig of a cousin’s birthday. And Harry would admit being jealous how Dudley would get so many gifts, it reminding his previous birthdays as Hadrian didn’t help either. He used to get so many gifts from different people, the Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Blacks-- it pained him.

Quickly shaking his head, he searched for a pair of socks, it was no use thinking about it. He was Harry Potter now, not Hadrian Potter. 

He swiftly dressed himself and went down the hall into the modern kitchen. The table in the living room was almost nonexistent beneath all of Dudley’s birthday presents. The pig got the new computer he wanted, second television and a racing bike.

Vernon came in as Harry was turning over the bacon, and his gaze landed on him almost instantly. Would his greeting be the same today?

“Fix your hair!” He yelled at him. A common morning greeting he uses. Harry mentally rolled his eyes, it want exactly his fault for having wild and untamed hair. Blame the Potter genes.

Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother in tow, quite happy. Here comes the fat pig, who looked a lot like his father. _Hey, like father, like son, am I right._ Large pink face, small neck and what nots, the only thing that differentiate the father and son was his blond hair, which came from the mother.

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table. He would admit that they were quite tasty looking, too bad he wouldn’t get much-- Meanwhile Dudley frowned as he counted all the presents. Oh did he get less gifts?

“Thirty-six,” he said, his eyes narrowing into a glare. “That’s two less than last year-”

“Darling, have you counted Aunt Marge’s gift? It’s here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy.” Auntie Marge, or well Marjorie, or you can just call her Marge, is Vernon’s spinster elder sister. She is a spoiled, unpleasant and egotistical woman, and also a bulldog breeder. Marge looked very much like Vernon, large, beefy, purpled-faced and Harry humourously noted also had a small moustache. He couldn’t blame anyone for not marrying the nasty woman, albeit very wealthy.

“Thirty-seven then,” Dudley admitted, his face going redder every second. Harry was surprised that he knew the number next to thirty six, Dudley was, after all, very dumb.  
He could feel a tantrum coming and Harry held back a snort, his tantrums were always funny. And he wasn’t the only one who felt it, as Petunia became nervous.

“And we’ll buy you another two presents while we’re out today. How’s that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?” She said quickly, not wanting to deal with a tantrum. And Dudley looked thoughtful. _What a spoiled brat._ God knows how many times he had thought of that, but he’d never stop. It was a fact.

“So I’ll have thirty… thirty…” _thirty-nine, idiot._

“Thirty-nine, darling,” said Petunia.

“Oh.” Dudley looked happy now as he sat down on the couch and grabs the nearest wrapped present. “All right then.”

Unlce Vernon chuckled, almost proudly. He boasted about how similar his son was to him. Tsk tsk.

As if on cue the telephone suddenly rang and Petunia went to answer it. While Harry, who was eating his tiny amount of breakfast calmly and Vernon watched Dudley unwrap his gifts. He didn’t bother to identify what they were as he was sure that Dudley would destroy most of them in just a few days. Then Petunia came back from the hall, looking both part angry and anxious.

“Bad news, Vernon,” she started. “Mrs. Figg has broke her leg. She can’t take the freak.” She looked at Harry’s direction. What was so hard about calling his name?

Dudley’s mouth fell open, as if the news was so important. Every year on Dudley’s birthday, the Dursleys would take him and a friend out for a trip, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants or the movies. And every year, he would be dump to his ‘babysitter’. He wished he could just stay at the Dursley residence.

“Now what?” Petunia looked furious at Harry as if he had planned this. Ridiculousness. He would rather be with Figg than be with the Dursleys, he had enough of them! (She might be a squib, but at least she was better than the Dursleys.)

“You could just leave me here,” Harry suggested, if he was alone, he could just go somewhere. Hang around places where magical folks like him wander around... He was itching to get some information again. Especially what happened to Tom, but honestly, every wizard and witch he has encountered were either too carefree to the fact that Voldemort was defeated or still too scared to talk about him. He hasn’t even heard anything about Abraxas and Saros... it was frustrating and his patience was really bad. But like Tom said, patience is a virtue. 

Petunia’s glare was on him. “And come back and find the house burnt to the ground?” She snarled out angrily.

Oh it was hopeless, why did he even try?

The couple were discussing what to do with him when Dudley started crying— no not really. He was crying. The manipulative piggy had figured out that if he started crying, his mother and father would give him anything he wanted just to stop him from crying. Of course he kept complaining about how Harry would spoil everything, blah, blah.

Then the doorbell rang, Petunia looked panicked as she opened the door to their house.  
And then a few seconds later, Dudley’s best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Polkiss was a scrawny boy, with a face like a rat. He was the type of person to hide behind stronger people-- aka cowards. He was one of the ones who held his arms behind his back whilst Dudley hit him. And thank Merlin, Dudley stopped his crying at seeing his best friend and went towards him.

They got to compromise. After hearing that, Polkiss’ mother, who knew how Harry would ‘spoil’ and ‘destroy’ everything from gossiping with Petunia, told her that she could take him for the day so her son and Dudley could have a good time. Petunia looked grateful and eagerly left her nephew with the woman. They first had an awkward staring contest, Polkiss’ mother was probably as bad as Petunia. She was an uncaring woman and drank a lot, only really interested in gossiping with their moms. (You could probably guess how Polkiss became like that.) 

Worst of all, her mind was filled with this dating site called ‘Binder’. She slept with a lot of men and usually neglected Polkiss. Thinking that if she let her son go with friends and ensure that he had a good time, she didn’t need to show much affection— wait, how in Merlin’s name did he know this?

Harry blinked a few times, breaking eye contact with the woman, and realised... he just used legilemency on her without him even noticing. 

“What the fuck was that- okay, kid. You are really weird. I’m going home, I’m coming back at night when the Dursleys come home. Do whatever you want and don’t you dare say anything about me letting you home alone.” She said quickly before swinging around and exiting the now empty house. And giddiness and andrenaline pumped through him.

He was home alone!

 

 

“Are you alone? Where are your parents?” The guy that sold train tickets asked him, suddenly realising that he was completely alone. Harry had just stolen from the Dursleys, but it’s not like they would notice, they had quite a lot of money stored in their home. The train from Surrey to London was surprisingly cheap (especially for children). 

“Oh, I’m visiting my father in London and my mother couldn’t afford to take a day off today because we’re tight in money.” He easily lied, feigning a sad look. Considering how poor he looked like, hopefully it was convincing enough. And it did, as evidence of the face the man made. He took out his wallet, grabbing money.

“You know what... I’ll pay for your ticket.” 

Idiotic gullible Muggle. Letting someone take advantage. He should be ashamed, got manipulated by a child.

Harry smiled brightly, obviously fake but he wasn’t sorted into Slytherin for nothing! “Thank you sir!” The man smiled back, Harry’s fake smile affecting him too.

“No need to thank you. Just have fun.”

He quickly boarded the train, very smug. Not feeling an ounce of guilt. 

Once stepping into London, he grabbed the hood of his oversized jacket and covered his face. Not wanting to risk the very high chance of him being recognised, he was the famous ‘Boy-Who-Lived’. Who wouldn’t recognise him? (Muggles obviously, but they were filth. Ignorant to the happenings of the Wizarding World.) 

He started concentrating on sensing magical cores around him. He still wasn’t used to it, which made him a little bit uncomfortable whenever he would feel a rather strong magical presence but it was no big deal. He could stand a few discomfort here and there.

“The Boy-Who-Lived is gonna start his first year at Hogwarts this year right? I’m glad that my son is attending the same year as him.” Harry perked up hearing this and stopped in his tracks. He was walking through Charing Cross Road, planning to go the Leaky Cauldron since he couldn’t overhear any conversations about him, Abraxas or Tom. But finally, after what felt like a few hours, he finally got something.

“Some theories say that the Dark Lord was reborn in him. Aren’t you afraid of that?” The other witch asked, worriedly. Oh please, even if he was to become a Dark Lord, it wouldn’t because of Tom. It would be because of his choice.

“Pardon me, only the Malfoys would think that! Speaking about them, I hear Abraxas Malfoy, who turned his back from the Dark Lord is currently in hiding. That coward.” Harry sat down on a nearby stool and grabbed a magazine, pretending to read. 

“But I’ve just saw him Knockturn Alley yesterday and 2 days ago. Looked quite rushed too.”

* * *

Upon hearing that, he practically bolted to the Leaky Cauldron. Abraxas was sighted in Knockturn Alley two days in a row. Hopefully he was gonna be there for the 3rd time.

The Leaky Cauldron wasn’t any different from what he remembered. Small, dingy but definitely still welcoming. Tom (the barman and the owner, not his Tom) was still there. And despite being very old, he looked good for his age, ‘looked good’ meaning looking younger than his age. Tom the barman raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously. 

“Do you need anything?” He drawled out. Some patrons were also looking at him in interest.

“No, was just going to Diagon Alley.” When they heard his young and quite high pitched voice, they let their guard down and the tension in the air dropped. Tom the barman then smiled at him.

“Well it’s on the left there-” Harry didn’t wait for him to finish talking and calmly walked away, as fast as he can. Some people were still suspicious of him, so he didn’t want to increase their suspicion even more by running. 

Like the Leaky Cauldron, there wasn’t anything noteworthy and it was the same old, same old Diagon Alley. However a few new shops popped up and the broomstick shop had the newest style of brooms, including the Nimbus 2000. He had always been interested in them, it was just too bad he wasn’t any good at riding brooms. (The flying class was probably the class he had done the worse in. Excluding Divination of course.) Very much unlike his brother, Fleamont, who had been fantastic. Perhaps he could try it as Harry Potter- but who knows really... he could still be as bad as he was before. That had a very high chance.

Harry scanned the Alley, it wasn’t filled with much people. The Hogwarts supplies hasn’t gone out yet after all. Gringotts looked the same. He wished he could grab some money but without his key, he couldn’t do anything (to at least buy a wand). Dumbledore had it no doubt.  
He could recognise some of the people from very distinct Pure-Blood families, Weasleys from their red hair, Greengrass from their very distinct angular head shape, were just a few of them. But he couldn’t find Abraxas anywhere. He eventually made a sharp turn around the corner of Diagon Alley to enter the dark Alley devoted to the Dark Arts. He could immediately see the ‘crazy’ vendors as they had looked at him, their bodies twitching. It wasn’t anything strange though, he had passed through the Knockturn Alley a lot of times as Hadrian, so he got used to it.

He was walking around when he saw the head of pale blond hair. And oh, he could tell who it was already. Abraxas.

Harry slowly followed behind him, making sure he wouldn’t make one sound. 

Harry hid behind a wall upon hearing two masculine voices. Abraxas had just stopped to an alleyway, away from all the other people. “Abraxus, finally. Took you long enough.” A rough voice said. The voice sounded like the deeper version of someone he knew, very close, when he was Hadrian… but who? He must be from Knights of Walpurgis, but who?

“Saros, I had many things to deal with. I cannot meet you everytime.” Welp, there goes the answer… of course it was Saros Lestrange. 

Saros huffed and tsked. “You know how much time it took me to get out of Azkaban? I almost got caught again because you were too slow. Damn Riddle. Disappearing out of nowhere, because of him, most of us are in Azkaban.” He spat out coldly. 

“He has long since lost his sanity, Saros. It wasn’t my fault that you didn’t pull out with me.” Abraxas replied, the sound of plastic rustling followed after. “Here, wear it. You stink.”

“Hadrian wouldn’t like us abandoning Riddle like that. Avery, Rosier, Nott and Mulciber died already, we’re the only ones who can stand by him.” 

Harry could hear the Malfoy blond patriarch let out a deep sigh. Obviously disagreeing. “I’m sure he wouldn’t want us being hurt because of him.”

Saros snarled and let out a low growl, getting ready to yell. “Abraxas-” 

“Saros, I don’t want to fight anymore… I’m sure he’s greatly saddened about what has occured after his death from the astral plane, a place where one’s soul is supposed to rest.” That was half way true. He wasn’t in the astral plane as he had reincarnated but he was actually watching them. “Riddle has been defeated. Their souls have undoubtedly met each other already.” At that, the other man went silent. The only sound wave that was floating in the air were clothes being worn. Tom hasn’t died. He was sure about that. He had survived the killing curse from him, and Tom definitely lived through the spell of his that backfired. Very weak to carry on, but alive. And no doubt he had started to search for a way to strengthen, and finding ways to sustain himself. Tom was a smart man, despite the insanity clouding his mind.

Harry smiled then. That was all he needed to know-- CRACK!

He froze and looked down. A twig had been under his foot and it was cracked in half.

“Who’s there?!?” Abraxas’ voice boomed and the sound of his very expensive shoes walking towards him was heard, it was too loud in Harry’s ears.

He turned around and was met face to face with Abraxas, his wand pointing at him. They stared at each other, grey eyes to green eyes. The blond man froze upon recognising his eyes, much similarly to Tom’s reaction. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he made a run for it. Dodging the stupefy Abraxas sent him.

“Who was it?!?” Saros ran up to him, completely clothed now.

“I don’t know…” He says, his lips pursed in despair. “They had Hadrian’s eyes.” Currently two people had his beloved, Hadrian’s eyes: Harry Potter and the mysterious cloaked man. It unnerved him.

* * *

Harry stood at the Leaky Cauldron, out of breath and furiously tried to suck all the air. His heart was beating hard against his ribcage. He was so close and if he had stood there for a second more, he would surely be caught.

“What happened to you?” One of the patrons said out loud. Then he noticed that literally everyone was staring at him. Thankfully the hood of his jacket stayed on, he didn’t know how, but he won’t question it. He was just grateful. 

“Umm… my parents said that I needed to go home immediately- I had to run.” It didn’t sound too convincing but he couldn’t think of anything. His head was all over the place. “I have to go now.” He got out of there immediately before someone was called to thoroughly question the suspicious child.

Harry looked up, the sky was already the color of deep blue… 

Oh he was gonna ‘punished’ for this. Was it worth it? Ehhh... yes, definitely. He got some information. Although the only comforting fact was... Abraxas and Saros were alive and well. (Well maybe except for Saros, who is probably a little bit unhinged from his quality time with the dementors in Azkaban)

* * *

The punishment Harry received from that was the worst (not really). Polkiss’ mother had told Petunia that he just escaped from her at afternoon, so he was blamed for it. (Not like it would be any different even if Polkiss’ mother had told the truth. He was never let out of his cupboard unless he needed to go to Muggle elementary school. Other than that, he was stuck in the dark section of the house. But at least he didn’t need to do chores and of course he got a chance to practice some simple wandless spells without getting interrupted (specifically Lumos), _am I right._

Speaking of Muggle schools, he hated it there. He didn’t really mind not having any friends, he knew even if he did make some, it wouldn’t because Harry necessarily liked them. It would be because they would remind Harry of the friends he terribly missed. And he didn’t want that. It felt wrong and shallow. Actually, he liked being left alone, at least the alone time he gets, as Dudley and his shitty gang would never leave him for too long. Harry was the perfect target to bully, they knew Harry would never hit them back. Even if he did, his punches would be weak and would never actually land, Harry was a scrawny kid, with a very thin face and knobbly knees due to neglect and sometimes near starvation. So he was glad when the summer holidays began.

Dudley’s gang of ‘bad’ and ‘cool’ boys came every day. Polkiss, Dennis, Gordon and Malcolm were their names. He didn’t bother to find out what the last three’s surnames were, it was unnecessary. Dennis had been big and it was as if he didn’t have any brain inside his little head, he is very stupid, placing as last place in class. He had black hair and a face that stuck out oddly. Gordon had been a big guy, like Dudley, he also had blond hair but his face was red, redder than any of them. And then there’s Malcolm… he looked pretty much like Dudley, however he had black hair and his neck could actually be seen. Out of all of them (except Dudley, whom he see everyday), Polkiss was the only one he could stand to look at-- probably because he was the person he sees the most. There was no diversity in the gang, really. They were all big, dumb and stupid-- with the exception of Dennis, he was BEYOND stupid.

Once his birthday comes, he was sure his Hogwarts letter would come. A time Harry was eagerly waiting for. He would finally get out of this place and get away from these nasty Muggles (at least for almost a year). Harry also began to wonder what happened to the letter, but considering how the Dursleys reacted when he would even use a teeny bit of magic, he had a suspicion that they hated magic-- not a suspicion actually. The Dursleys hated magic, probably wanted to beat the magic out of their nephew.

“They stuff people’s heads down the toilet for the first day at Stonewall.” Stonewall was the name of a secondary school closest to the Dursley residence, and it’s apparently the school Harry will go to-- it sounded like a horrible place but did he care? No, he was going to Hogwarts either way, he had to. “Want to come upstairs and practice?”

“No thanks,” Harry started. “The poor toilet’s never had anything as horrible as your head down it-- it might be sick.” He deadpanned and ran as his feet could take him, once Dudley could fully absorbed what he said, he would get his arse kicked and he didn’t really want that.

The one day in July, Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings (an old private school Vernon used to attend) uniform and left Harry in the care of Figgs. And it wasn’t that bad… he liked Figgs, at least better than the Dursleys. But he swore, the squib was purposely trying to make his time there uncomfortable.

That evening, Dudley struttered around the living for the Dursleys, wearing his new Smeltings uniform and sometimes giving Harry smug glances. The uniform consisted of a maroon tailcoat, orange knickerbockers and a flat straw hat called a boater. The students also carried these knobbly sticks, used for hitting other students while the teachers’ eyes were somewhere else. It was supposedly a good training for later life. _Bollocks, I tell you._

Vernon said that it was the proudest moment of his life while Petunia burted into tears and said she couldn’t believe it was her Icle Dudleykins, then proceeded to comment about how handsome and so grown up he looked like. Another load of codswallop.

Then the next morning, he was woken up by a horrible smell in the kitchen. _Were they cooking some humans?_ It was meant to be humourous but Harry couldn’t help but wonder. But alas, of course not, cannibalism was old fashioned, instead it came from a large metal tub in the sink. He went and took a look, and he scrunched his nose. Now that he was close to it, it really smelled like the potion Tom had made him drink. Apparently it was Harry’s new school clothes. He wasn’t too worried. He won’t be wearing them anyway.

Dudley and Vernon came in the living room, which was attached to the kitchen, their noses were scrunched up, because of the smell, just like his. Vernon opened his newspaper as per usual while sitting on the largest couch and Dudley hits his Smeltings stick, which he pretty much carrier everywhere, on the table. Then they heard the click of the mail slot and the letters flopped to the doormat.

“Get the mail, Dudley,” said Vernon, not looking up from his paper.

“Make Harry get it.” Harry just rolled his eyes, and thankfully no one noticed, then went to get the mail. There were three things laying on the doormat. He starts walking towards the kitchen while looking at the mail. One of the three things was a postcard from Vernon’s sister, Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wright, a brown envelope that Harry assumed as bill and the final one was a letter for Harry.

>   
>  Mr. H. Potter
> 
> The Cupboard under the stairs
> 
> 4 Privet Drive
> 
> Little Whinging
> 
> Surrey  
> 

He smiled realising what it was and stopped walking, silently hiding it in his baggy clothes. How in Merlin was he gonna reply? After his expedition in London that one day, he was sure Petunia and Vernon would never let him out of their sight or perimeter. 

Harry gave the two letters to Vernon and didn’t eat, just simply went back to his cupboard. Petunia, who noticed, didn’t bat an eye at this. More food for them.

Upon opening the cupboard door and laying on the old mattress. He closed the small window on the door and casted a Lumos. 

He felt really giddy, it felt like he was getting his first Hogwarts letter again. Gently removing the purple wax which sealed the letter, he took out the parchment paper. He scowled upon reading how many titles ol’ Dumbles had.

>   
>  Dear Mr. Potter
> 
> We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. 
> 
> Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
> 
> Yours sincerely, 
> 
> Minerva McGonagall
> 
> Deputy Headmistress  
> 

Guess they were changed what the letter stated. A little bit disappointing but nonetheless, it would do. He looked at the back of the parchment, it includes the list of all the books. All of them are the same as well-- but honestly what did he expect? 

Deciding it was best the Dursleys never found out and placed the piece of parchment back to its original place, hiding it somewhere in the corner of his cupboard. 

Now to wonder,

How the hell was he going to find an owl?

* * *

“Mrs. Figgs, do you have an owl?” He really had no idea why he decided to ask Figgs, but he couldn't think of anyone who would have an owl. 

Figgs looks at him, interested. “I need it to send a letter.” Harry blandly replied. 

“Why an owl? Why not the post office?” He mentally rolled his eyes, she clearly knew what he was gonna use the owl for. She is indeed a squib but that didn’t mean shite if she had knowledge about Hogwarts and the Wizarding world (which she clearly does. The ‘cats’ she had were half kneazles and half cats. And Kneazles are magical animals, related to cats. How else would she have them if she wasn’t aware that magic existed?)

“I have an owl, but I won’t be lending him to you.” 

Heh, like that’s gonna stop him. He had a letter to send (in his pocket) and he was gonna send it.

When Figgs was busy with something, he had sneaked off and quickly found the owl looking over the horizon. It seemed as if the owl knew what the Boy-Who-Lived was gonna give him and eagerly took the letter before speeding off somewhere in the direction of Scotland.

* * *

Twas the night before his birthday, with a tempus spell, it would show that it was 11:57 PM. Oh he was so excited for the next morning that he couldn’t even sleep. And he didn’t even know why! He was smiling madly, his guts were turning because of joy (thankfully not dread), as he looked up at the ceiling. He would get out of this place soon… at least for a couple of months before he had his wand and torture the Dursleys-- he really regretted not asking Tom for guidance for wandless spells. And hopefully, he’ll meet Abraxas (and oh, don’t forget Saros) and confirm his identity to him… Harry really did miss him. And it went both ways, if the way he spoke about Hadrian didn’t convince anyone, he didn’t know what will. Unless of course he had a memorabilia of Hadrian’s, and considering it was Abraxas, it was very likely.

Harry jerked awake when he heard a boom at the door. Harry casted a quick tempus: 5:03 am. He heard frantic footsteps upstairs before he heard a roar from Vernon.

“WHO IS IT?!”

The door broke down.

“Whoops… sorry ‘bout that.” Harry smiled at the familiar rough voice. It was the giant man that carried him to this place.

“What do you want?!” Vernon said, voice high and nervous.

“Calm down, ya old prune. I’m just here for Harry, I’m surprised that ya even let him send a letter.” The house rumbled from the laugh the giant produced.

“What?” Vernon asked confusedly. He was sure he hasn’t seen any letters regarding about magic.

Petunia gasped in realisation. “V-Vernon… he kept it from us. That freak knew!” Then the sound of a shotgun being fired was heard but it did nothing but make Vernon scream bloody murder. What the hell was happening?

“Now where is Harry?”

He banged on the cupboard door. “Here! The door is locked from the outside!” 

When a shadow appeared in front of his cupboard door, he knew the giant was in front of him and it wasn’t too long before he was greeted with the sight of Vernon clutching his hand in pain and Petunia panicking. He turned to the giant, smiling creepily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original reason I wanted to put Cedric/Harry in this, is because I wanted to give Dumbledore a heart attack. Haha. I swear I wrote a lot based on the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone... it’s disappointing that I had to look at it though... I’ll try not opening it next time. I wanted to write the other part of my other series, but I got a author’s block on it :(
> 
> For anyone wondering, I don’t really want to do bashing on characters. Any bashing is completely unintentional, or/is necessary for a plot point, unless it’s.... Umbitch. She’s going to get bashed either way. And I could mean literally.  
> Good news, 1st year is fully planned out. Bad news is 2nd year will take longer to plan out ;-;
> 
> Originally this was supposed to have Voldie’s life up until his first defeat, but this suddenly got so long. I expected this to be a lot shorter but what do you know- ahahah. So next chapter I THINK WILL BE A LOT SHORTER.
> 
> I had no idea how to end this chapter. Might edit that.


	5. Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of Diagon Alley, Snakes and Slytherins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> was supposed to write about what happened to Tom but ok. I couldn’t start it. I might try again but idk anymore  
> This fic is a mess wow.  
> Also you know what I keep forgetting, I was supposed to write a scene in Riddle Era where ‘Hadrian’ attacks a student but I think I scrapped it? I’ll add it in I guess, and also I’m dying to edit the confession scene. It makes me cringe so much whenever I read it again. I should have given Hadrian the nickname “Harry”, so it would flow better... oh well, dumb idiot Pharaoh strikes again

Diagon Alley was bustling and filled with wizards and witches. But despite that he and Hagrid were probably one of the most noticeable people there. Of course they would be, he was with a giant man!

Harry had been in Diagon Alley a few weeks ago, but walking through countless people wandering around the alley felt very different than walking alone, seeing only a handful of people every now and then.  
They first went to the white building in the center, Gringotts. Nothing changed, except maybe for a few new goblins. The scent of the building felt very nostalgic, the memory of Tom and him walking to a goblin to try a genetic test and then finding out that the older boy was the Heir of Slytherin came rushing back to him. Despite being in the Diagon Alley, he hasn’t been in Gringotts since that fateful day. He had no reason to go in the Wizarding bank. He didn’t have a key.

“Hadrian Potter?” Came a very shocked voice. Harry twitched before turning around to look at a very familiar goblin, Griphook.

“Who’s that?” He feigned ignorance and stared at Griphook with the green eyes the goblin was very familiar with.

“Oh! He’s your grand uncle, Harry. If I had his portrait, I bet I can’t even find the difference between you two.”

“I have a grand uncle? Why wasn’t I put in his care?”

“He was disowned, and he’s long gone. After his death, your grandfather had lifted the disownment, guilt probably crept up to him.” The goblin answered. “Hadrian was one of those good wizards, it’s just too bad Lady Magic decided the world wasn’t worthy.” He smiled at Harry, who subtly smiled back. Goblins were intelligent creatures, this wasn’t a surprise at all.

Harry wouldn’t comment about what happened to Gringotts but the small pouch that Hagrid had grabbed from a vault had caught his interest. Welp... if the giant won’t tell him what it is...

Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

Without the giant noticing, he hissed a low _“legilimency”_ , which bordered to Parseltongue, and looked through his mind. It took a few moments to locate the memory but when he did, he smiled very widely, it was the smile that usually freaked Abraxas out. He got out of the man’s mind and carefully hid the smile, which he struggled to do.

“Well... that felt weird...” Hagrid murmured.

“What’s the matter, Hagrid?” He asked, not really concerned as he was aware that he was the one who caused it. 

“Huh? Oh, nothin’. Let’s go grab your supplies, shall we?”

They first went to grab Harry’s student cloaks and the whole ways towards ‘Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions’, he had tried his snatching the stone from the giant’s coat but kept failing. As Hagrid seemed to always move away whenever Harry gets close.  
When they neared the clothes shop, Hagrid halted and told him that he wasn’t really comfortable going in the shop, then proceeded to tell him they’ll meet outside the shop after. Harry just shrugged and went it, his ex family had done the same thing.

An elder witch greeted him upon entering and led him to sit beside a very... familiar blond child. He looked like a miniature Abraxas! Except without the silky long blond hair that Hadrian liked very much (he was a bit disappointed). Harry decided to sit beside him, genuinely curious about the boy and when did, the blond looked at him automatically.

“Hey, going to Hogwarts too? I’m Draco Malfoy.” 

Oh. That’s why. So either Abraxas’ son or grandson. 

They started having a conversation. Somehow without Harry needing to tell him his name. He quickly figured out that Draco Malfoy was quite different than Abraxas. Their mannerism were similar but they felt very, very different. 

“I heard your father was high in the Ministry, don’t you think he should be Minister?” Harry asked, unsubtly inching their topic away from Quidditch. He had no interest in that sport (and it was not at all because he was horrible at it) and plus... he was curious if this Draco was Abraxas’ son or not.

“Yeah, my father, Lucius is quite brilliant isn’t he? But because of Dumbledore, they aren’t letting him get anywhere higher than his position. They still believe that he’s siding with you-know-who!” 

Lucius?

Harry tried his best not to snort. Oh Abraxas... you sweet man. Honouring your brother figure by naming your own son after the name Hadrian wanted to name his own child.

He suppressed the incoming snort, but he wasn’t able to stop the smile creeping up his face. Thankfully though, Draco was too busy ranting about how the Minsitry were too biased and he didn’t notice it.  
Then Draco’s robes were finished, ending their conversation. 

“I guess I’ll see you in Hogwarts then?” 

“Yeah,” 

He met Hagrid outside of the shop. And they went to buy the rest of his school supplies. And went in Flourish and Botts, he had wandered to the curses section. He saw a lot of new books he had never seen before. Harry was about to grab a few to buy them (and to get some inspiration for future spells) but Hagrid had dragged him away. Yeah well… he’s going to get his hands on them eventually. 

They were nearing Ollivander’s to grab his wand when it suddenly hit him. 

“What about pets?” 

“Oh! Yer right! It slipped out of my mind Let’s buy one after your wand?” Harry nodded. He had doubts that it would only be one.

They entered the old creaky shop and the man behind the counter greeted them without turning around to look at them. 

“Hello,” Hagrid greeted back. And the old man finally looked at them. He smiled at Harry. 

“Harry Potter? How very unusual, you look like your grand uncle. You should be cautious, some people might mistake you as him. He had a _friend_ that went very dark and I have many doubts that your meeting will end well.” The old man was describing Tom, it was very evident from the tone of his voice when saying ‘friend’. But Hagrid didn’t seem to catch on, he looked very confused. “Well anyway, shall we try on wands?” He asks before measuring him. Harry nodded as his eyes trailed after the measuring tape moving around him in a swift manner.

Speaking of wands, he was curious… would it be like his blackthorn wand? Or another wand entirely? And what happened to his old wand? Was it broken? Buried in the earth with his body? Or did someone take it? If someone did, it would surely be either Tom or Abraxas. His money was on the former.

The measuring tape dropped, indicating they were done. Harry let out a breath. 

“Try this one. Holly and phoenix hair, eleven inches, nice and supple.” Harry grabbed and waved it. But it simply did nothing but crack an object. “No that won’t do.” He grabbed it away. 

He tried out a few wands a number of times. But simply nothing came out of it… it was annoying. When he got his wand as his original self, it didn’t take long for the old man to pick out his wand. Actually he got his wand the first try and Harry remembered the exact words Ollivander said after that: “ _How unusual._ ”

“I wonder… I wonder. Try this one… blackthorn and phoenix feather, 13 inches, smooth and nimble.” Harry looked relieved and waved it around. Immediately, he knew it was his wand. “Curious… curious… Harry Potter, I remember every wand I have ever sold. And it’s a coincidence that the wood used in that wand came from the same tree your grand uncle’s wand came from. And the phoenix who gave that wand it’s core, also gave another feather. And it just so happens that the wand that holds that feather belongs to the _friend_ your grand uncle had, thirteen and a half inches, yew. Very curious… perhaps it’s destiny? Perhaps. I would be really cautious of your surroundings and who you interact with, Mr. Potter.” 

In all honesty. It sounded like a very cheesy romantic story if you ignore the fact that the brother of his current wand is an insane Dark Lord.

“Oh I will.” 

After paying, Ollivander shooed them away.

Hagrid, who was very weirded out shuffled and dragged Harry away from the wand shop to a pet shop. And Harry failed again to snatch the stone in the giant’s coat.

 

 

A smooth lithe snake slithered and hissed towards Harry, who held out his hand. 

“S-sir! I would suggest putting your hand away, that snake is quite unfriendly—”

The witch didn’t get to finish her sentence when the snake licked his finger and then slithered closer. Coiling it’s body around Harry’s forearm comfortably. It was a bit smaller than Nagini, and instead of the green he was familiar with, he was staring at black scales.

§ You sssmell very nice, human. I like you. § it hissed at him before rubbing it’s head on his skin. 

The owner and the workers were stunned.

 

 

Harry and Hagrid went out of the pet shop with the snake and a white owl. He got the snake for free and the workers seemed relieved when he happily accepted the offer and eagerly took the snake with him outside. Hagrid looked wary but didn’t judge. People had different tastes in pets… even if it were snakes.

“I’ll call this snake Jormungand and this owl Hedwig.” He decides. Harry named his owl Hedwig after a famous witch, who influenced most of the curses he made, and the snake Jormungand after the Midgard Serpent from Norse mythology, perfect for the hissing snake, who was quite terrifying.

“Jormungand? I understand Hedwig, but err Jormungand?” Hagrid asked. He had just brought Harry back to Leaky Cauldron where they were eating.

“Yes, the Midgard Serpent from Norse mythology. Perfect for this snake... isn’t it?” Harry’s eyes was completely on the moving snake, fascinated. He hasn’t touched a snake in a while. While Hagrid was bewildered at the boy in front of him. He was quite worried that he would get sorted into Slytherin. Even though Dumbledore had said he would definitely get sorted into Gryffindor, like Lily and James Potter. He had just spent a day with the chosen one, yet it became quite evident to him that he was definitely not what the Wizarding world expected. And he had doubts that he would be living with the lions. But oh well...

“Harry. I noticed that you’re quite fascinated by... that snake.”

“Jormungand,” he corrected automatically. “And it’s a male.” 

“Yes well... just so you know. Even if you get sorted into Slytherin, I wouldn’t dislike you.” Hagrid stated. Harry Potter might be somewhat weird, but he could tell that he wasn’t a bad child. 

Harry tilted his head. “What’s so bad about being a Slytherin?” 

“Oh, blimey! I forgot that you don’t know much about the Wizarding world.” He then proceeded to explain the three other houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. He had a lot of great things to say about them. But not to Slytherin. It was obvious he was trying not to badmouth them... oh well, at least he was trying.

“Are you saying that an entire house should be judged because one person did something bad? What about the other great wizards or witches from Slytherin? The ones who didn’t go dark? Should they be overshadowed because some wizards or witches from the same house did something bad?“ He then continued the monologue and ‘rant’, unable to stop his mouth. Hagrid looked blown away when he was done and was rendered speechless.

* * *

When he got back home. No one was home, oh well. Good for him. 

Harry smiled smugly, remembering what transpired earlier that day. If he hasn’t been able to produce a patronus yet, that memory would have been the reason (of course assuming that the change of bodies didn’t affect his magic. But considering how similar he looked like as his previous self, it would be likely that he kept his magic). 

He dragged his things to Dudley’s smaller bedroom. Making the items in the room disappear with just a flick of a wand. Since there weren’t any Muggles who could see him and since the use of magic had been minimal, the trace shouldn’t detect it. Either way, he would burn the letter warning him about the use of magic outside of magic focused places if it came. 

 

 

He perked up from his book when he heard shuffling noises and whispers. When it was obvious that they knew that Harry was in Dudley’s second bedroom but didn’t barge in to drag him away, he ignored them and went back to reading a book out of boredom.  
The next day, they kept ignoring him. No doubt afraid. He had sneaked down and once he stepped foot downstairs he could feel the heavy tension in the air. It was _delicious_.  
That was how the rest of his month with the Dursleys went. They left him alone in the room, and Harry appreciated it. It allowed him to do stuff, that totally didn’t include spelling the muggle’s things to tighten, rip apart upon wearing it and break. And he totally did not hex their food and they totally didn’t stop eating food made from home. Harry hasn’t laughed that much in a while.

Before he knew it, it was the first of September.  
Harry ‘asked’ Petunia Dursley (although ‘asked’ wasn’t really the right word for it) for some money to get to King’s across. Petunia hesitantly and shakily gave him the money. Sighing loudly in relief when Harry summoned his baggage, owl, Hedwig and... snake, Jormungand immediately and exited the premises. He’s gonna deal with them once the year was over, unless something happens.

Getting to King’s Cross was no hassle as no one dared to approach a child with a snake coiled around his arm. It was almost laughable at how many adults looked at him concernedly but didn’t make any indication to ask him anything. Eventually he was between Platform 9 and 10, waiting for the line to finish. Watching Hedwig hoot at him and Jormungand flick his tongue at some of the pets young wizard and witches had with them. 

“I don’t remember snakes being written on the pet list.” A feminine voice said behind him. Harry turned around to see a bushy haired girl with bright brown coloured irises, eyeing Jormungand afraidly, in response the snake hissed at her. 

§ Sssmellsss like a muggle. § 

“And I don’t remember having a snake as a pet was prohibited.” He replied blankly. Harry hasn’t produced an opinion of the muggle-born yet, so he was unsure on how to act with her.

“Fair enough,” she admitted. “I’m Hermione Granger, you?” 

“Harry Potter,” he watches as her eyes widened, guess even muggles (or at least muggle-borns) know who he is as the Boy-Who-Lived. However before she could say anything else, her parents (at least that’s who Harry assumed them as) dragged her away. 

“Err- I’ll see you then?” Granger said, at a loss for words. Harry smiled at her and nodded. 

He calmly ran up to the wall and reappeared at the other side, his mind not really paying attention to his surroundings as he followed the crowd going into the red Hogwarts Express train.

* * *

Harry was quietly entertaining Hedwig and Jormungand when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” he says looking away from his ‘friends’ to curiously look at the student who dared to knock on the door of his compartment.

The door slid open to reveal a red haired wizard with freckles on his face (no doubt a Weasley) outside. “Can I sit here? Every compartment is full…” His blue eyes widened when it landed on the snake on Harry’s arm, staring at him. 

Harry noticed and smiled, “sure.” 

The young Weasley smiled nervously and kept his eyes on Jormungand. They had a staring contest, Weasley fidgeting under Jormungand’s gaze. 

Harry let out a sigh. “I don’t get why people are so scared of a simple snake. Jormungand doesn’t even bite.” The snake glared at him. “Well, sometimes. He’s not dangerous though.”

“You called it J-Jormungand? T-that’s even worse!” His fidgeting worsened and Harry was forced to put his snake under his cloak. Said snake clearly didn’t like it but complied anyway. 

“Better?” 

“Y-Yeah…” he sucked in a deep breath. “I’m Ron Weasley by the way. Sorry for not introducing myself immediately.” 

“I’m Harry, Harry Potter.” He introduced himself and as expected, Weasley looked surprised. 

“ _The Harry Potter_?” When Harry nodded, Weasley smiled happily, forgetting about the snake entirely. “Can I see your… you know, scar?” 

Harry tried his best not to roll his eyes and pushed away the jet black hair covering the scar he received. 

Ron Weasley’s enchantment on the scar was cut short when the door to the compartment slid open again but this time, it was Draco Malfoy.

“I heard Harry Potter was in the train—” Draco trailed off when his eyes wandered around and landed on Harry. 

“Hi Draco.” Jormungand peeked out from his owner’s coat curiously, he had heard the name before. 

“You… you’re Harry Potter?” 

“Who else would it be?” And with just that sentence from Weasley’s mouth, they started insulting each other, forgetting about Harry. 

Harry let out a long sigh and rolled his eyes at them. He gave them a few moments to see if they would calm down from the pretty slurs but nope.

“Can you two stop fighting? Malfoy, if you keep complaining about muggle borns taking over, instead of ranting about it and trying to kill them, why don’t you procreate with Weasley here. A pure blood. Pregnancy potions exists yes?” Harry smirked when the two pure bloods both turned red and silent. “I was joking but it is a valid option. You can sit here if you want, Draco.” 

Said blond was rendered speechless as was Weasley, so he didn’t even try to exit the compartment and debated whether to sit beside Weasley or Harry. He hesitantly sat beside Weasley when he saw the snake in the latter’s cloak.

“I’m sure you two can find something to agree on. Come on, try tolerating each other and act like the pure bloods you are.” 

“But—” they both began but stopped at the same time when they saw the dark look on Harry. 

“I insist,” 

It only took a few conversations for them to start a civil conversation as if their previous hostile enmity never existed in the first place. Harry smiles proudly and pulled up a book, tuning the redhead and blonde out.

“I didn’t expect Harry to be like this,” Draco started.

“Me neither, he’s terrifying, he even has a snake! But I weirdly already like him.” Ron whispered back. 

“Same…” He ended as they both stared at Harry Potter, petting the snake occasionally. 

This Harry Potter… was bewildering. Merlin, he made Draco have a conversation with Ron, what else could he do?

* * *

Harry didn’t listen to any of the sorting. Only making note of the pure blood heirs and Hermione Granger, the muggle born he met. 

Hannah Abbot, Ernie Macmillan and Neville Longbottom were sorted into Hufflepuff (only surprising thing was Longbottom, unexpected since both of his parents were hardcore Gryffindors). While Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Theodore Nott, Millicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass were all sorted into Slytherin. No notable fact.  
And Hermione Granger was sorted into Ravenclaw.

After Pansy Parkinson was called, he knew he was up next.

“Potter, Harry!” McGonagall called his name and everyone erupted into whispers.  
Harry approaches, his head up high like a pure blood would. He humorously noted Dumbledore’s face, no doubt recognizing him.

The sorting hat was placed on him and he lowered his Occlumency barriers, knowing that it used Legilimency. 

“I have sorted you before, haven’t I? Hmm interesting. Why have you come back?” Harry didn’t answer, he didn’t need to. “Oh well… I shall sort you back to your old house. Better be… SLYTHERIN!” 

Hahah… the face on Dumbledore was priceless. As well as the face on a greasy haired professor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cedric should appear next chapter and Abraxas should appear after it if everything goes to plan. Sorz if you didn’t want Neville to be sorted into Hufflepuff...  
> And also if anyone was worried about the comment Harry made with “pregnancy potion”, I don’t plan to incorporate it to this story (unless you want to) and if you’re worried that I’ll pair Ron and Draco up, don’t be because I won’t let them (sorry DracoxRon fans). Speaking of Draco. I’m wondering, who do you want to pair with Draco? Dw, I won’t focus on the relationship (or ship at least) of other characters, they’re just there for the background.  
> Short chapter, my bad.
> 
> Hope this makes up for the previous chapter ig, can understand if you want to drop it doe. *shrug


	6. First Year, First Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of Zabinis, Snapes, Diggories and... Magical Rings?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn’t really like this chapter, I was stuck for a long time in this one. And the comments were really nice from the previous chapter (thank you). The reason why the update took so long was not because I got discouraged (so the nice compliments weren’t necessary but they were nice to read), it’s because school started a few months ago, I’m prone to procrastinating. I knew what I wanted to write but I just didn’t know how to express it you know?   
> Shitty excuse, but do you want me to lie?
> 
> Sorry for the long wait and short chapter and the fact that the plot is seemingly in a stand still.
> 
> Also added “Tom gave Hadrian the nickname: Harry” thing, so I can call Hadrian ‘Harry’ instead.   
> Fixed the tags. I’m surprised I didn’t put Obsessive Tom there.

Whispers exploded once Harry approached the Slytherin table, clearly amused at the reaction. They were, however, hushed by McGonagall (who was also surprised but kept a calm facade) and called out another name. 

“Potter? In Slytherin?” He heard a boy say in disbelief beside Draco. Harry turned and his eyes bulged out in surprise. The boy looked unusually familiar with his soft facial features (very much unlike Draco’s pointed and sharp ones) and wavy black hair. _Oh Nott_! Harry suddenly remembers. Of course, he would be Nott’s son, his name was literally announced.   
He was not close to Nott as he was to Abraxas and Saros but he could recognize that face anywhere! Nott had always been the odd one of the group, being kinder than any of them and quite timid. 

“Malfoy, ignore what I said in the train ride. I think there’s a better option for you.” Draco choked on his spit when Harry winked at Nott’s direction.

“What?!?!” The blond squawked, his pale face growing redder every second. The same thing seemed to be happening to Nott. Harry snickered and silently nudges Crabbe to sit further away. The gorilla of a boy absentmindedly let the boy-who-lived sit between him and Draco. As if it was normal and not at all unusual that the boy-who-lived had pushed him to sit beside Malfoy.

Harry grinned at the gobsmacked Slytherins, staring at him warily. “What? Did the Wizarding world want a Gryffindor? Too bad I’m not gonna give them one.” He announced, uncaring of what others would think. The Slytherins understandably looked at him with even mike suspicion.

The last students that would be sorted into Slytherins were Zabini and two children Harry didn’t recognize. 

“Welcome to Hogwarts! To our new students, welcome, this is the beginning of your magical education! Now to our old and returning students, welcome back! A new year filled of adventures awaits you.” Dumbledore greeted, warmly smiling at everybody. Everyone cheered after his small little speech.

As the tables were filled with delicious food, Harry saw an apparition in the corner of his eye quickly approaching their table. 

“Oh, haven’t I seen you before?” A very pale and gaunt-like face of a ghost appeared before Harry, startling the Slytherin table. 

“Most likely not, I _haven’t_ visited Hogwarts until now.” The ghost looked at him suspiciously and began analyzing his face. All the while Harry kept a straight face. 

“Yes... I must be remembering wrong.” The ghost drawled out before floating away, his head still turned to Harry’s way. 

“Well, that was weird,” Draco commented, the discomfort was clear as day on his face. Actually, the other snakes had a similar expression. Harry simply snorts, unbothered. He knew this was gonna happen from time to time.

“Brush it off. I think it may have something to do with my grand-uncle or whatever. A goblin in Gringotts had the same reaction-”

§ Feed me human § Jormungand slithered out from the collar of his robe, which now had a Slytherin emblem on it. Causing a few Slytherins (mostly first to third years) to stand up suddenly and hold up their hands in a fearful manner. 

“Come on, it’s not dangerous.” Harry smiled softly and held out a finger for the pitch-black snake, who seemingly got the message and licked the finger with his forked tongue. But that did not reassure anyone. Except for Draco, he was still scared (honestly, only the strong or a fool wouldn’t be terrified) but less frightened than his peers. 

“What’s happening here?” The greasy-haired professor appeared, glaring at Harry harder than any of the students. Harry raised an eyebrow. Did he know him? Because Harry does not recognize him. 

“Professor... the snake.” Once the older man looked at him straight on, Harry immediately caught his gaze, curiosity getting the best of him. He tried piercing through his mind but a powerful barrier stopped him from going any deeper than the surface. Harry was confused, however, he kept a straight face. He hasn’t encountered anyone strong enough to stop him but Tom, and he had been able to go through his mind (of course, that was because Tom had let him. Not because he was more skilled than him, that would be absurd). The professor also looked quite confused and glared even harder at him as they had a staring contest. Harry didn’t feel the need to look away. He would feel it if the greasy-haired professor was trying to go through his mind. But anyway... suffice to say, he very much fucked up right there.

“The snake isn’t dangerous, professor.” Harry smiled, or at least he attempted to through his lack of certainty. Thankfully, his voice didn’t waver. If this professor was an accomplished Occlumens, he had to watch his back, because who knows. This man might be an accomplished Legilimens as well. And Merlin knows, Harry didn’t need that chasing after him (he had already an insane Dark Lord who was also his ‘dearest’). He had already risked himself after doing that cocky (and he’ll even admit, stupid) stunt. Harry needed to know his place. He did not have his connections as he did in his previous lives. But hopefully, that would be fixed soon.

“Meet me in my office, Potter.”

“I hardly think we need to meet in your office, sir. I’m sure you have more important things to do? Last time I read the rules, there were no rules against having snakes as pets.” Jormungand hissed at the pet part (he was more of a familiar anyway) but he ignored the snake. Instead, he focused on the professor, Harry did not want to confront him, not yet. And he was sure he would want to avoid him. 

The greasy-haired professor and turned to look at the frightened students. “Sit down.” He quickly walked towards the other professors. The standing students slowly sat on the bench, they were frankly more afraid of that professor than the snake Harry has. 

“Wow. Students barely escape detention with him.” A 5th year Slytherin said. 

“Who is he?”

“Severus Snape. He’s the head of our House.” Harry mentally slapped himself after.

_Well, shit_

* * *

“You look like you saw something, Severus,” Dumbledore commented softly, looking at him intently through his half-moon spectacles. 

“Has the Potter boy bewitch the hat to put him in Slytherin?” He asks, almost sarcastically.

“That would be impossible. From what Hagrid said, he believed he was a muggle for almost 11 years of his life.” The silver-haired professor replied slowly, making sure the head of Slytherin processed the information.

“I find that hard to believe seeing he dared to use Legilimency on me. He did not even utter one word of the incantation.” Severus smirked slightly when Dumbledore faltered. 

“Now, now, Severus. You might have been imagining things...” Denial was visible as day on the old man’s face. But Severus was not convinced. He could not be mistaken about the feeling of someone trying to go through his mind. The Dark Lord had done it enough times for him to remember the painful feeling of having his mind essentially raped. But here comes the question Severus had let slip away. Why did Potter’s Legilimency felt so similar to the Dark Lord’s?

For the duration of the feast, the Slytherins seemed to naturally flock to Harry, who took pleasure, almost sadistically, in scaring everyone with the snake in his hand. This did not escape Dumbledore’s attention, who stared at their table, curiosity, and confusion flooding his mind. This was not the Harry Potter he expected, neither did anyone really... especially not Severus. Who was currently staring at his plate of food, uncertainty, and irritation marred his face.

* * *

Harry was pleased to comment on how the Slytherin common room didn’t change one bit. The sofa that he had countless conversations with Saros and Abraxas was still there. It was giving him a lot of nostalgia. The feeling reminded him of the things that already passed, the things he so wished to live again but couldn’t and... Tom, he didn’t like that feeling. He missed him dearly and he couldn’t imagine how Tom felt. If Abraxas had been miserable enough to the point that he was rarely seen outside, who knew what Tom did after his death? Tom was a wizard who wore his heart on his cheek, he never shows his true feeling in public... but Harry wasn’t stupid. 

“Why are you sulking about? The Slytherin dormitories aren’t that gloomy!” He smiled at Draco. Luckily enough, Harry had been placed in the same room as Draco, Theo, Crabbe, and Goyle. Thank Merlin he didn’t get placed with Blaise Zabini, who he knew didn’t trust him one bit (oh he saw the glares but he chose to simply ignore it) and Harry couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. 

“It’s not that. I was just thinking of something.” 

“Like what?” Theodore questioned. 

“How nice the Slytherin dormitories are. I think Jormungand likes it too. Don’t you?” 

§ Too cold § said snake complained, understanding what his master said. Harry simply snorted. He knew the dungeons might be too cold for the snake but he was used to it...

“Here, you spoiled snake.” The green-eyed first year lets the black scaled snake onto the mattress. 

“Are you gonna sleep with that snake?” Draco inquired. 

“I get uncomfortable if I sleep alone. I’m used to sleeping with something or _someone_ beside me.” He said lowly, longingly. Draco and Theo looked at each other questioningly but decided not to ask. Perhaps it was a sensitive subject and maybe Harry Potter didn’t want to talk about it. 

Crabbe and Goyle just looked confused, dumb idiots they were. Of course, they wouldn’t get the sign.

* * *

Classes, especially Charms and Transfiguration class were deathly boring. He had already gone through the lecture in his previous life. Harry swore he would have fallen asleep if Draco didn’t sit beside him. He collected quite a few points for just answering questions that were drilled into him in the past. (Thanks Abraxas)

“That mud- muggle-born Ravenclaw,” Draco corrected himself. “Did you see how she was glaring at you? She thinks that she could be better than you!” 

“What?” _Why must it be a Ravenclaw? For Merlin’s sake..._ , Harry thought inwardly. Although his face was saying something. 

“Didn’t you notice her? The girl with bushy brown hair-”

“It could barely be even called hair! Does she not know what combing means?? Her mane of a hair is too frizzy and wild! It looked like it hasn’t been combed in months!” A girl interjected. She had long, well-groomed blond hair. A small clip held up her bangs, allowing her face to be easily seen. A good decision as she has pretty blue eyes. She was beautiful but couldn’t compare to a Black. Now that would be quite disrespectful and Walburga would probably kick his arse if he did compare them. The Blacks are quite prideful with their appearance. She was a classic Greengrass beauty and Harry would daresay, she resembled James Potter a little bit. His mother was most likely a Greengrass.

“Wow, Daphne- would you mind if I call you Daphne?” Her name was as you guessed it, Daphne Greengrass. 

“Not at all! Can I call you Harry?” Harry nodded.

“I have known you longer than Daphne has. Yet you still call me Malfoy.” Draco states, peeved.

“Oh, I imagined the great Malfoys would rather be called by their surnames than their first names if the speaker themselves is not a pure-blood.” Harry joked teasingly, closing his eyes and holding up his nose high up with his best ‘stuck-up-prat-voice’. Draco jabbed him in the side while Nott and Daphne snickered. 

“Don’t be ridiculous! And we, pure-bloods, don’t talk like that!” The blond boy snapped, as if annoyed. But in reality, he wasn’t. Harry can tell.

“If you insist, I’ll call you Draco from now on.”

“I was not insisting. I was just commenting!” 

“Whatever, mate. Whatever makes you sleep at night.”

“Sometimes, I really forget that we’re talking to Harry Potter and not a pure-blood.” Nott implored right after.

“Harry?” Said boy-who-lived whipped his head around when a familiar voice called him. He immediately knew who it was when he caught notice of the red hair and freckles. 

“Hey, Ron,” 

“Merlin, it was actually you. You really do blend in with the Slytherin.”   
Harry didn’t respond and just smiled… that wasn’t anything unusual. He had been a pure-blood and a Slytherin before his terrible faith, that inadvertently caused thousands of innocent lives lost because SOMEONE couldn’t accept their boyfriend’s fate of death— AKA Moldy Vort. Because how dare anyone live when his dearest isn’t? Sure, he was on his way to becoming a Dark Lord even before Hadrian died. Insanity was in the Gaunts’ genes, that was undeniable.

“Oh, is that your posse, Potter?- you even let a Gryffindor with you and here I thought you were a proper Slytherin.” The four Slytherins and one Gryffindor stopped talking once they heard Zabini’s mocking voice. Ron was about to say something but was stopped by Harry, who shook his head disapprovingly. “What? Can’t talk back?”

“Zabini-”

Theo was then cut off by Harry. “It’s better to ignore flies rather than acknowledge their presence and become annoyed.” He began with a serious expression. But smiled at once. “They won’t do anything but buzz around you, most of them can’t hurt you. It’s also good training for tuning out nuisances in your life. That’s a life lesson, children.” 

Harry’s ‘posse’ snorted at the ‘children’ part. “We’re older than you, Pot Head.”

“That’s not nice, Draco.” Daphne chastised. 

“So is insulting that Muggle-Born’s hair.” Theo chimed in right after.

“Low blow.” 

“Nevertheless, Zabini. What do you hope to gain from mocking us? Specifically the Greengrass, Malfoy and Nott heirs.” Zabini’s eyebrows furrowed, almost to the point that they met each other, and his mouth curled into a very displeased frown. Harry grinned at this, vindictively.

* * *

“I swear you have another personality,” Ron commented as the group walked to the Potions classroom. The students lingering around absentmindedly made way for them. 

The new Knights of Walpurgis in the making.

“We are learning about potions, so there will be no foolish wand-waving here. Although I do believe some of you would hardly need their wand to do some things...” Snape hissed out. The last part was clearly directed at Harry if the potion master’s scowl on him was anything to go by. Harry didn’t meet his gaze, that would be quite foolish. Instead, he acted as if he had no idea what the greasy man was talking about. 

“Potter, tell me. What can I make with Ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint and moonstone?” Shouted Snape. 

On instinct, Harry stood up. “Those are common ingredients for love potions, sir. However, there are many different types of love potions. So they’re not always brewed the same, meaning not every love potions may require those ingredients. Some may require Pearl Dust, some may not. A great potioneer named Zygmunt Budge favored Rose Petals among most. Specifically, with Amortmentia, you don’t need moonstone. That would be replaced with an essence of the brewer. Be it hair, skin or blood. That may sound disgusting but it isn’t as if you’re going to taste it. The peppermint hides its taste and smell. That’s why wizards or witches usually choose blood, it’s easier to mix with. And speaking of it, an unskilled potioneer may need to be careful as one mistake can make another potion entirely.” 

Snape’s scowl deepened, not expecting that kind of answer. While the students gaped, Slytherin and Gryffindor alike. 

“Although I’m curious. Why ask me such an advanced potion? Are you trying to say something, sir?” Harry asks jokingly, breaking the thick tension. Draco and a few Slytherins unsubtly snorted. “You don’t have to answer that.” He then added after seeing the outraged flush on the professor’s face. 

“Impudent brat! What were you trying to imply?!”

“I don’t know. What were you thinking, sir?” He responses, smiling in an almost teasing way. 

The professor twitched angrily, before trying to compose himself. “Nevermind that. Well, why didn’t any of you write that down?!” 

For the weeks coming it went just like that. The teachers (excluding Snape) sang praises of him and he quickly gathered up points. The Ravenclaw muggle-born kept glaring at him though and Zabini was being an annoyance but other than that, it was... boring as all hell. As mundane as someone’s life could get. Who knew having the life of the ’Chosen One’ would be repetitive and dull. Oh if only he was able to go off alone... (perhaps a _Cloning_ Charm? But that doesn’t exist does it). He wanted to find where the stone was... but he didn’t know where to start.   
Besides that, Harry expected at least a bit more action considering HE WAS THE BOY-WHO-LIVED. His life as Hadrian Potter had more shit going on in his life. This continued until of course... 

“Potter?” A silky smooth voice that definitely reminded him of Tom called out. And when he turned around to see who it was. He was met with a handsome face— _ah, doesn’t this remind him of something?_

_Oh that was right... his first meeting with Tom._

* * *

_“SLYTHERIN!” The Sorting Hat shouted out, startling Hadrian from his daze. His parents won’t like that... he could already feel his older brother’s disappointment and disgust. Well, it wasn’t as if his brother’s disgust would change even if he was sorted into Gryffindor._

_Hadrian surrounded himself with pure-bloods, not just any pure-bloods however. Pure-bloods like the Blacks, the Malfoys, the Lestranges and so on so forth. Fleamont didn’t like that as like his parents, never trusted them, saying they were stuck up supremacists who have no sympathy. Sure they were pure-blood supremacists but they were actually nice and sympathetic once you get closer to them. And... the children had only been pure-blood supremacists because of their parents. They had no fault, they were children who thought their parents were always right. If only they understood that._

_Hadrian kept his head low the whole time he walked towards the Slytherin table._

_“Why the long face?” Asked Abraxas worriedly when Hadrian sat next to him. The Malfoy Heir was the pure-blood he became fast friends with. Perhaps Abraxas’s desire of a younger brother helped their friendship to flourish quickly._

_“One would think you aren’t glad to be with us.” Lestrange (or Saros, the guy kept insisting Hadrian call him by his first name) said teasingly. Abraxas shot him a small glare, with no real heat in them._

_“It’s not that. It’s just... I’m worried about my parents, I know they wouldn’t like this.” Hadrian croaked out solemnly and felt Abraxas pats him on the back._

_“You know, our manor is always open. My parents would be happy to have you if the Potters... do anything.” The blond offered. Oh, he tried to be subtle but it was clear as day what he was hinting at. Although it didn’t surprise Hadrian, that kind of thing wasn’t rare. The Blacks were known for them._

_“Hey,” Saros added, putting on a fake pouting face. “Our manor is also open.”_

_“No, your home is creepy.” Hadrian giggled at him._

_“Beggars can’t be choosers.” Lestrange reprimanded._

_Abraxas turned to face Saros, his hand was still on Hadrian’s back. “Hadrian has me, you can piss off Saros.” The pure-blood looked away from his butthurt classmate and gave his attention to the smaller boy beside him. “Anyway, Hadrian. I want you to meet someone.”_

_Hadrian raised an eyebrow. He knew most of Abraxas’ friends (who were all, of course, pure-bloods). So this one might not be a pure-blood?_

_“Hadrian. This is Riddle.” Abraxas introduced themselves. A muggle-born the-_

_The world stopped while Hadrian stared at this boy called ‘Riddle’. Piercing dark eyes caught him, for a 3rd-year student he had really mature eyes and he found himself liking it. Riddle’s jet black hair and black cloak greatly contrasted his rather pale skin. Merlin wasn’t he good looking. This boy couldn’t possibly be a muggle-born. No muggle can have that high of cheekbones. Perhaps he was half-blood? He could feel his face flushing. Riddle..._

_“-is Hadrian Potter.” Hadrian was suddenly broken out of his own thoughts when he heard Abraxas say his name. Saros was smiling at him in a teasing way, he most certainly knew what Hadrian had thought. And this is going to go to shit._

_Riddle simply nodded at him with absolutely no interest.  
That broke Hadrian’s heart a little bit. _

* * *

“-earth to Harry? HELLO!” Harry jumped. “Oh thank god, I thought you were dead,” Draco added, sighing in relief. 

“Can you blame him? Diggory is handsome.” Harry identified that as Daphne’s voice. A soft laugh followed after. 

He finally looked at who called his name the first time. Instead of cold, piercing dark eyes. He was met with soft, bright grey ones and a blinding smile. Harry couldn’t say he was disappointed, of course not. Why would he expect Tom....? And plus... it wasn’t as if the boy was ugly. Actually, he was very handsome. If you had to remove the blinding smile and bright grey eyes, Harry could mistake him for Tom- OF COURSE, HE WASN’T AS HANDSOME AS HIM. THAT WOULD BE BLASPHEMY.

“I’m not that handsome.” He said humbly. 

“Don’t hit on him, Daphne. He’s a 3rd year.” Theo chided, being the mature guy he is. 

“He’s only 2 years older than me!” The 3rd year chuckled at Daphne’s announcement. And Harry just noticed he was wearing a Hufflepuff badge. Okay, other than his handsomeness. He was completely different from Tom. Imagine Voldemort being a Hufflepuff-

Diggory turned to Harry. “As I was saying. The head of our house, Professor Sprout had told me that you were quite talented in almost all of the classes. So I was gonna ask if you were willing to help us tutor the students who are struggling in those subjects? Of course, I’m not forcing you-”

“Sure, why not?” Harry accepted. It wasn’t like he had anything interesting to do anyway and he wasn’t about to spend an entire year, trying to find the stone all the while doing nothing. Plus, it can be an excuse in case he decided to explore. 

Immediately, Diggory’s face brightened in delight, causing Harry to smile as well.

* * *

Turns out it wasn’t just him who was asked. The muggle-born Ravenclaw, Granger was also asked apparently and she didn’t look happy seeing him there. Seriously... why was it always a Ravenclaw? He had only hurt one after losing his temper and... for being jealous. Merlin.

One of the students he recognized that needed help was Longbottom, who he noticed to be passionate at Herbology. 

“Nice notes,” Harry commented, looking at the organized writing and notes on Longbottom’s book. The pureblood, who didn’t notice Harry looking from behind him, unexpectedly jump and caused water to be dropped on the carefully written notes. 

“Oh no no-” He panickally starts muttering as he tried salvaging what he could save. Eventually slumping down in remorse when he realized it was ruined. 

“Oh... sorry...” Harry flicked his wand and everything went back to it’s place, even the ruined parchment paper in Longbottom’s hands, like absolutely, none at all happened. “That should be fine now.” 

The Hufflepuff watched in wonder as he touched the formerly ruined paper. It was not wet at all. “How did you do it? Which charm?”

“Just a basic one. It’s very handy as you can tell.” Harry says nonchalantly but he was taken aback by the awe-inspiring gaze the pure-blood gave him.

“Please teach me! I’ll do anything!” He says, desperately. A sweat rolled down Harry’s forehead, he didn’t mean any harm but... Longbottom doesn’t feel like a pure-blood. Not at all.

“There’s no need for that. You can just ask without owing any favors, I’ll teach you later. But you should correct this-”

And there was also Parkinson, he never really paid any attention to her. Mainly because his original self wasn’t friends with anyone with the surname ‘Parkinson’.

Parkinson looked suspiciously at him but she nonetheless called him whenever she needed help, as Harry was the only Slytherin there. 

“You don’t seem bad.” She finally said, which got Harry a bit confused. “Blaise was talking shit. But clearly, that’s what those are.” Parkinson continued, sensing his confusion forming.

“Oh,” he just snorted at that. “He’s just jealous.”

“Pretty obvious. Can we start over as if we’re strangers and meeting for the first time?” Parkinson asks, hesitantly.

“Sure.”

“Hi, my name is Pansy Parkinson. Call me Pansy, you?”

“I’m Harry Potter, just call me Harry since I’m calling you Pansy.” They shook hands and shared a laugh.

* * *

The door leading to the Great Hall was pushed open with a frantic force, which caused a few students’ heads to turn, the others were far too busy either eating or talking (*cough* gossiping *cough*) to each other to look at who dared to open the door as violently as that. Just as expected, who could do that if not Professor Quirrell himself?

Harry was about to ignore him to feed Jormungand when of course, the cowardly professor opened his mouth. “Troll! In the dungeons!” This successfully caught everyone’s attention as the entire Great Hall went silent. But the screaming was not avoidable. 

It was at that point that Harry very much envied Jormungand for not having the same functioning ears as humans. Harry, unlike his classmates, didn’t panic. Instead, he sat there, waiting for the professors to say something. Which took a few minutes. 

“Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories at once!” He roared commandingly. All prefects stood up in unison. They began shouting orders and the frightened students did nothing else but follow the prefects. Heck, even the badly behaved ones listened. For Merlin’s sake, it was just a troll. A big creature with herculean strength but if the three failing grades have told one anything. It was that trolls were incredibly slow and mindless. Now… if they actually have some sense of intelligence, that would be very terrifying. 

“Have they forgotten that the Slytherin Common Room is in the dungeons?” A very distinctive voice said. The owner of said voice was Pansy Parkinson. After his ‘first actual encounter’ with her, the girl had joined his small gang of Slytherins (and Gryffindor, if you included Ron). She and Daphne had… an awkward tension between them. But who was Harry for him to say anything about it? He wasn’t a girl and he sure as Merlin wouldn’t know what’s going through the girls’ mind. And Harry wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know.

It was also at that time when he saw Ron’s worried expression. At least that’s what he looked like to Harry. It was unusual to see Ron so deep in thought.  
Harry approached him, although it didn’t seem like it, as Harry looked like he was simply following his schoolmates back to the Slytherin Dungeon. 

“Worried?”

Ron expectedly jumped. “Erm, you know that Ravenclaw girl that keeps glaring at you? I may or may not have insulted her… and now she’s maybeee crying in the girl’s bathroom.” 

He gave Ron an unimpressed look. 

“Hey! It wasn’t like I wanted to offend her, it’s just that I thought her hatred of you was unreasonable!” The red-haired boy defended himself. Harry simply sighed at this, but his expression softened. 

“That still wasn’t right, Ron.” The Gryffindor understood if his expression said anything. “I’ll fix it for you.”

“Wait, what?”

Harry lightly pushed Ron to the other Gryffindors and smiled at him. Ron looked panicked and he kept looking at the insane Slytherin but he was eventually swept by the crowd. 

Question is. Which bathroom? It surely wasn’t where Myrtle died, that’s for sure.

* * *

For convenience purposes, we’ll just say that Harry found the bathroom Hermione was crying in. 

Yep, Harry totally wasn’t out of breath and not pissed at all. And he wasn’t about to kneel down because of all the running he did. This body… was not really designed for intense cardio. Neither was his original body to be fair. 

A high pitched scream tore through his eardrums, causing his train of thoughts to be abruptly stopped in an unpleasant way. 

Harry looked up from his position and saw the muggle-born girl cowering in a mixture of fear and panic. Standing just a few steps before her was a huge… impossibly large creature, which could be none other than a troll. It did look scarier than what was seen in the books. Perhaps… badmouthing wasn’t the brightest of ideas. Harry was never the type to believe in karma or stuff similar to it… but this time, he might believe in it once… haha

He couldn’t stop the nervous laughter that came out of his mouth. Granger perked up when he heard the sound of a voice but she immediately lost hope when she saw that it was Harry Potter, her self proclaimed rival. _Why would he save her?_

That’s what Harry guessed what went through her mind when her tearful eyes landed on him. 

He wouldn’t. If he hated her.   
Which Harry luckily didn’t. Granger was a bright girl. He had overheard from a few Ravenclaws that she had consumed an entire titan sized book in a day. A friend like that would surely prove to be useful.

* * *

For over 30 decades of studying the deepest parts of Dark Arts, necromancy and even reincarnations that no Wizard had dared to explore. All for naught. All went to waste because of one child. 

Harry Potter.  
The Boy Who Lived.  
The Chosen One.   
The one who supposedly was the only one with the power to defeat him.   
His **beloved’s** grand-nephew who dared to bear his name and eyes. 

It was as if Lady Magic decided to mock him and Tom even believed it for a moment. The thought of death, the thing he feared and hated, suddenly sounded heaven to him. But of course, he could never pass on. Not after the creation of his Horcruxes. He was forever condemned to travel the world without a corporeal body. 

However, Tom wasn’t the type to just give up. His anger focused on Harry Potter. He would do anything to possess a body just to kill Harry Potter. 

_Surely the Ring Horcrux he left at Hogwarts could help him…._

He had originally left it there in case Snape betrayed him. The half-blood had been in love with a woman who was in league with Dumbledore and his lackeys. Who knew what the wizard would do for love- if Tom would flip the world over, what would the potion master do? He knew the half-blood was foolishly and obsessively in love with that woman. Their Patronuses were the same after all. Merlin, he had even begged his Lord to spare her. 

It was only a stroke of luck when he came face to face with a greedy professor of Hogwarts, Quirell or whatever his name was. Tom couldn’t let this opportunity slip from him and he quckly possessed the man. Personally, he would never choose to possess someone so weak, so pathetic, but did he have a choice?

 

Quirell stumbled and quickly sat down on a toilet. Voldemort was enraged. He never had a chance to fully look at Harry, but now that he did. He finally realized that the child who defeated him didn’t just have Hadrian’s name and eyes. Harry Potter had everything about him, even his idle and calm expression. Voldemort could not find a difference between his nemesis and his beloved. He should know, he had laid down and went through his past memories for the past 30 years. He remembered every part of Hadrian’s face. And wrath immediately filled his entire being once his gaze landed on Harry Potter. He wanted to rip this poser apart, mangle his face and pull his eyes out until he was unrecognizable as a human. 

Tom never even thought about the possibility of reincarnation.   
And the fact that the abandoned pendant he had given Harry had lit up, signifying that he was… alive.

* * *

Harry stared at the Professors who had turned up with a worried Draco and Ron at tow. He suspected that the two pure-bloods had something to do why the Professors were there. Well, who knew the two, who despised each other, could work together?  
Quirell dropped to the toilet but he paid him no mind. 

“What on earth-” McGonagall started before she was cut off by Granger. 

“It was my fault. I believed I could defeated it on my own but I overestimated myself.” She said in a surprisingly calm manner. Harry suppressed the pleased smile that ghosted over his face. It worked. “If not for Harry, I would’ve been… um.” 

Snape gave Harry a confused but irked look. Although his eyes betrayed him, his eyes showed his surprise. 

“Miss Granger, five points from Ravenclaw for this foolish action! I’m deeply disappointed in you.” The elderly witch glared her down, Flitwick as well, however, he had a softer look on him. “You, Harry Potter, will gain 10 points for Slytherin for this. A dozen of first years wouldn’t have the ability to take down a mountain troll, let alone one first year. I would say you were quite lucky but this is a very impressive feat. I will inform Dumbledore of this.”

What? Seriously?   
Dumbledore will be even more troublesome now.

 

 

“Harry! I heard you defeated a Mountain Troll alone!” Daphne frantically rushed towards him. “Are you okay? Were you hurt?” She added while looking at him over and over again. Harry saw how Pansy looked at them. Really, what’s up with them?

“I’m fine! It was actually quite fun!” Harry answered, brushing her off. Theo gave him a concerned look. “More importantly, Nott. Shouldn’t you be more concerned about your boyfriend? He went voluntarily with Ronald Weasley-”

Theo and Draco both sputtered. “I am not his boyfriend!” It was Draco who said this. The other boy blushed in response at his outrageous comment. 

Harry really did not want to talk about it. He couldn’t use the spells he created because Harry knew that it would expose him. Dumbledore wasn’t dumb and would ask him where he learned those spells. What would Harry say then?

* * *

The tutoring group was assigned to clean the outside of the castle and the inside while the others had time to chill about because they were considered to be ‘talented and the job would go more smoothly’. Bullshit, but Harry said nothing. It was an excuse to explore anyway. 

Harry had managed to enter the third-floor corridor, which was the out of bounds one, without anyone noticing. He didn’t remember the corridor to be forbidden when he first attended Hogwarts. So surely, it had something to do with the Philosopher’s Stone? 

And guess what, it did. 

Harry immediately froze up when he saw a black three-headed dog. I don’t know about you but the last time he saw a dog, that was in Divination Class and he died a month later. One cannot blame him for doing what he was gonna do next.

He pretty much stumbled away from that room but not before making a mental note that the dog was on top of a trap door. On his way out of the corridor. He had accidentally stepped on something, causing him to trip and fall on his arse. 

“What in the name of Merlin-” He rubs his bottom for comfort when he touched the thing he had stepped on. It was in… the shape of a ring and not just any ring- The Gaunt Ring! 

“Harry?” A familiar low voice filled with hope and surprise echoed through his ear. Except this time, it wasn’t Cedric Diggory’s face looking at him. 

It… it was Tom’s! Albeit… it was his 6th-year face. 

Harry was about to smile when Tom’s face contorted into a scowl. “It can’t be… you are Harry but not my Harry.” He began, his voice filled with so much toxicity. “You must be Harry Potter. The one who will first defeat my future self.”

“Tom-”

His face changed color and Tom was startled but it quickly reverted back into anger. 

“You even know my name.” He said, bordering into Parseltongue. 

Before Harry could even reply. 6th year Tom approached him and wrapping his hands around his throat. 

“Why do you look like him? Why do you have his eyes? Is your blood traitor father’s genes so weak he had to borrow from his uncle his own father disowned?”

“Because I am him, arsehole.” Harry managed to croak out as he tried his best to remove the hands around his neck. It wasn’t tight enough that he would choke but it wasn’t slack enough for him to be able to pry away. This was Tom Riddle and he was just a first-year student. 

6th year Tom tightened his grip. 

“A-Ask me… anything… that…. Hadrian… should only… know.” He was quickly losing breath but he wasn’t about to die right here. Not now- 

The young Dark Lord thought for a moment. “What is his Patronus form?” 

“Snake- we have the… same… Patronus.” Nobody knew that Tom had a Patronus except Harry and the Knights of Walpurgis. 

The grip went slack until he fully dropped Harry, who started to cough badly and started heaving for air. 6th year Tom looked at him in bewildered but most of all, his eyes were sad. 

“I told you…” Harry took a break. “I am your Harry, obsessive bastard.” 

The older boy didn’t say anything and ignored the blatant insult. Without a word. 6th year Tom threw himself at him, saying his name again and again like a mantra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE! TOM’S POV.  
> NOTE: that potion ingredient with Amortmentia was bullshit. That was not canon.   
> I read a wonderfully long comment about Severus and asked me not to be too hard on him. To be honest, when I started writing this, I haven’t really thought about Severus (like everything to be fair). Any suggestions perhaps? I can’t promise to take any of them though.  
> Of course, get ready for plot holes. I would be grateful if you bother enough to comment if there is one. I’m also unsure if I’m going through with the Cedric Diggory plan now since... you know Harry found one of Tom’s Horcrux... haha. I already know what I’m going to do with it though. Just keep an open mind. Guess I’ll just use him to fuel Tom’s jealousy idk. 
> 
> One more question.   
> Could this fic be considered Slow Burn? In my opinion, it really isn’t since the romance is already established. But opinions are welcome.

**Author's Note:**

> Have a feeling that this will turn into a more cracks-ish story. Not sure doe. Just expect crack, fluff and a teeny bit of angst.


End file.
